The Frontier Spark
by dmandog056
Summary: As the precursor artifact gold rush erupts across space, young militia titan pilot lieutenant Thomas Burke finds himself on a dimension hopping adventure of epic proportions. How will the battle tested future soldier adapt to a world of steampunk style, and how will Agatha Heterodyne adjust to a high tech future of acrobatic revolutionary heroes and mighty mechs?
1. One Bad Day

The Frontier Spark

Episode 1: One Bad Day

-PLANET HARMONY: MILITIA RESEARCH COMPLEX-

"So, Doc, this is all for one of those precursor relics I've heard about?" An assault class pilot dressed in full combat gear said as he walked alongside a scientist in a white lab coat.

"Zat is correct, and you must be 2nd lieutenant Thomas Burke. I am doctor Mira Vahlen, or perhaps you may simply call me Mira." The scientist replied. She was a woman with brown hair tied into a bun on top of her head and blue eyes.

"I still don't see why exactly I was brought here with my Vanguard class titan. Other than not going to military jail." The pilot said grumpily.

"Your titan VX-1887 is here just in case a situation arises that asset containment is not equipped to deal with. You are a Pilot and a Titan is useless without one, even a Vanguard class." The doctor said frankly.

"What, like in case aliens or something worse jumps through instead of me?" The man said sarcastically.

"There is good reason to fear the unknown. I am quite sure a soldier like you would understand that fact." Doctor Vahlen stated matter-of-factly.

"You're right I'm still a soldier doc. So yeah, I'll give you that in the face of danger fear is an appropriate response. That doesn't mean I'm going to like being a lab rat or a guard dog." The experienced 19-year-old warfighter replied.

"Men like you are trained to face the unknown lieutenant, to overcome that response and fight on in spite of it against the IMC." The doctor retorted.

"Spoken like either a true patriot or a master of propaganda. Look her doc, just get me to that lab doc and I'll be ready to do my job as a glorified doorman." Burke said coolly.

"Actually, I was considering more of an adventurous approach with your impressive record in combat herr Burke. You did say something about jumping through." Mira replied cheekily.

"I have a feeling I'm not going to like this one bit, am I?" The assault pilot replied skeptically from behind his armored visor.

"Science demands the need to leave one's comfort zone Lieutenant. Especially, when it is in the name of discovery. This is your punishment for disobeying your orders after all. Working with me is a far more lenient punishment than the brig as I am sure you are aware. Aren't you?" The doctor spoke as if she were talking to a crowd of nerds and reminded the young man of his accidental crime.

"Don't remind me of that doc, I hate, hate, remembering the stupid thing that got me roped into this.*sigh* Are we there yet?" Burke asked his temporary superior.

"Very well, we are almost there, Lieutenant." Doctor Vahlen relented and they entered the sector of the laboratories that housed the test chamber. Lieutenant Burke looked around the large room that chock full with all kinds of expensive prototype gadgets and astronomically advanced tech being moved around or currently being developed/operated by the small legion of people in jumpsuits, hard hats, and lab coats. Scientists and maintenance personnel busied themselves with their work to earn a paycheck on the militia's dime.

"*whistle* Wow, command didn't spare any expense on all your shiny toys doc." Thomas said in awe of all the advanced tech and highly specialized personnel in the research facility.

"Yes, well here is where we have been developing breakthroughs in advanced technology and other scientific fields for the Militia High Command. This is in fact where your titan's core was created and programmed, essentially this is where the Vanguard class AI program was born. So yes Lieutenant, command spared no expense on this facility." Mira said with an almost zealous tone as casually flaunted her work in front the frontline soldier.

"That's the thing in that room over there?" Burke asked bluntly.

"If you are referring to the ring device yes. So far our preliminary research reveals it to be a portal of unknown origin that was discovered in an IMC dig site now controlled by the Militia. We like to believe it was built by the precursors, the ones who originally created the fold weapon that destroyed the IMC fortress world Typhon." Mira said with an almost zealous tone. "Now imagine what other worlds that the precursors may have accessed and left behind these technological gifts."

"That's actually kind of scary when you think of it from my perspective since it was a rebuilt alien super weapon that blew that planet up. Anyway, as interesting as the whole new worlds thing sounds, let's just get this over with." The soldier wanted to cut to the chase.

"I agree. Your titan should be arriving now." The doctor said as stomping could be heard outside. A large door slid open and a pristine Vanguard Class titan strolled into the building. Its black paint was gleaming brand new like the chassis had just rolled off the assembly line.

"Woah VEX is that you?! I really dig the new look partner!" The assault pilot gave his partner a thumb's up.

"Affirmative pilot, same titan, new chassis." VX answered and gave a salute.

"Great, well at least my partner cleans up nice." Burke crossed his arms. After several minutes and much preparation, the experiment had begun. Burke stood watch in front of the portal with his R201 rifle loaded for bear. As the portal fired up, a glitch made itself known. The scientists at the controls tried to correct it but the glitch soon caused a cascade of system crashes and the device began act erratically. Within moments of the system failure the alarm sounded and the scientists began trying to shut down the device. Thinking it would explode, Burke and VX began running towards the exit. A bolt of electricity raced out of the portal and struck the pilot. After that it began sucking things in like a black hole. VX rammed his arm into the wall but was unable to catch Burke before he was hurled through the event horizon. Burke passed through several different sub-portals as he tumbled through a tunnel of time and space itself.

Aboard the airship castle wulfenbach, the Baron was examining the hive engine with his scientists. A lamp had fallen and caused the large device to tumble to the floor. After capturing a boy who owned up to it, the baron let him go and went back to studying the demonic machine. A strange electrical anomaly violently sparked to life in the center of the room. The ball of electricity grew to the size of a large globe. A moment later a figure in the shape of a man was hurled out of it.

"Aw hell this is gonna huuuuurt!" the man cried as he slammed into a wall. "OOF!" Though pilots normally land with an assist from the jump kit this time Burke was unlucky for his to be temporarily disabled by the energy bolt. The disgruntled soldier shook his head as he reeled from the shock of the impact. He'd been through falling flat before during training so he was able to deal with it. It didn't change the fact that he was disoriented and dazed from the whole thing.

"What in the name of castle Wulfenbach is this?!" The Baron shouted as the man careened through the air, landing with a loud thud.

"It appears to be a portal of some kind herr baron!" One of the two scientists exclaimed.

"Amazing!" The Baron said as he looked at the glowing energy vortex.

"It's closing." The other Scientist said in disappointment as the anomaly slowly shrunk.

"No matter, what came out of it?" The baron waved his hand dismissively.

"It appears to be a man in some strange kind of armor!" A guard said as he approached the man.

"Look at the advanced design of his gear!" One of the scientists said as he briefly examined the armor of the stranger. He wore a strange helmet with a glowing blue visor. One of the markings on the helmets was a label SRS. His armor was black with various military markings adorning it including a white star patch on his shoulder.

Burke shook his head and gritted his teeth. "Hey back off!" The assault pilot jumped to his feet and prepared his fists.

"Who are you mein freund? Are you a soldier of some kind?" The Baron asked the armored stranger.

"The guy who will kick your German ass if you don't let me jump back through that portal to where I belong." The future soldier threatened as he drew a set of dual P2016 Hammond service pistols.

"That is a finely crafted set of weapons. You seem very interested in returning to where or perhaps when you came from. Tell me are you a time traveler of some sort? I am Baron Wulfenbach and you will not be leaving this ship." The baron said as guards flooded into the room.

"Get out of my way, I have to get back! I'll go through you if I have to!" The man in the futuristic armor growled menacingly to the baron.

"DO NOT THREATEN ZE BARON!" A jagermonster growled to the intruder.

"Shut it ugly! I just want to go home to where I came from that's it!" Thomas pointed one pistol to the humanoid creature.

"I AM NOT UGLY!" The creature roared, pointing his own weapon at the warfighter from another world.

"I'm afraid not, you are now a permanent guest of mine. Surrender, and you will not be harmed." The baron offered to the man who come from the sparking vortex of energy.

"No way baron whatever your name is, that's my ticket back to Harmony!" The future soldier refused. The warfighter knew he couldn't trust the man as far as he could throw him. Just then, a giant metal fist reached into the room through the portal knocking away all the enemy guards.

"Pilot grab on!" An electronic voice said from beyond the portal.

"VEX!" The soldier shouted happily.

"Guards restrain him!" The recovering Baron shouted to his jagermonster troops.

"VEX don't! It's going to close on you!" The man revealed to be a pilot ordered to his friend.

"Pilot Burke protocol 3 dictates-!" The electronic voice started to say something but was cut off.

"Tell the doc to reopen it again later, I have to move now!" The pilot said as he ran for it, wounding two guards in his path with his pistol.

"Affirmative Pilot, closing portal!" The voice said as the large mechanical arm retreated into the portal.

"Get back here!" The Baron roared.

"Sorry but I can't stay Baron von Wolfenstein!" The pilot said as blue flames erupted from a pack on his back while he ran down a hallway into the depths of the airship.

"That's Wulfenbach to you! I want all guards to capture the intruder ALIVE!" The Baron was furious now that the mystery man was running loose.

"Ya herr baron!" One of the guards saluted and they began to chase the man. The pilot dashed through the hall at a lightning fast pace, sidestepping passing personnel and humping from wall to wall despite the cramped nature of his surroundings. One guard tried to hit him as he slid right under without stopping and even slightly increasing his speed.

"Stop zat human!" A guard yelled as alarms blared throughout the section of the massive airship.

"Catch me if you can!" The pilot shouted tauntingly to his pursuers. All he had to do was keep running until another portal opened somewhere that he could get to. Hopefully doctor Vahlen could get him home as he did not want to end getting trapped in another dimension of steampunk weirdos.

-END CHAPTER-


	2. Ramble on

The Frontier Spark

Episode 2: Ramble on

-CASTLE WULFENBACH-

Thomas was currently busy running for his freedom from the pursuing guards aboard the city sized airship. He was breathing hard and felt like he'd been running forever to escape. He knew he couldn't do this forever despite his elite training. He'd burn out eventually from fatigue and drop, not that it would be anytime soon. There was no way VEX would be able to help in such a confined space even if doctor Vahlen did manage to reopen a portal. But then who's to say these guys wouldn't try to force their own way through the portal if it reopened in the same spot. But he did know if they tried, a fully armed Vanguard class titan would be waiting to bring the pain. As he ran for his life he noticed sections in front of him began to seal off. They were trying to box him in and he knew how that would end. Giving it everything he had, the pilot cranked up the thruster on his jump kit and started moving even faster. In essence he'd just sacrificed his mobility for raw speed. An alert sound on his HUD as the extra boost was about to wear off and possibly blow his jump kit thruster. The jump pack just had to hold out a little longer so he could outrun the rapidly closing bulkhead doors. He dropped and slid under one just as it slammed shut. At that moment the jump pack over heated and shut down forcing him to slide uncontrollably along the ground. In front of him was a sold T-junction wall that he would splatter against with out the jump pack. Thinking quickly, he fired the grappling hook from his wrist, latching it onto a sturdy pipe on above him, and stopped a few inches from the wall. He breathed a sigh of relief as he came to a stop, only to see he was now cornered. The clicks of safeties being released on many strange looking guns echoed around him.

"VE HAVE YOU CORNERED NOW HUMAN, NOW IS TIME TO SURRENDER!"

"Aw crap." Burke said as he slowly moved his hands up. "Looks like you got me." Then he suddenly reached into his combat jacket and unleashed a flashbang. The piercing light blinded the jagermonsters who cried out in pain as they were blinded by the light and deafened from the bang. Seeing his chance to run once more, Thomas charged the disoriented guards and plowed through them like bowling pins. "See ya later suckers!" He shouted as he ran again through the halls of the sprawling airship.

-WITH THE BARON-

The Baron had left the hive engine's room and proceeded to a command chamber with his generals and enforcers. The baron was listening to runner explaining the situation.

"How hard can it be to capture one man?" The baron growled.

"Ze man in black und green is really nimble und he used some kind of flash bomb-" The runner said timidly under the baron's gaze.

"Just get him! He must not be allowed to reach the residential block! Vonn Pinn, Dupree!" The baron snapped to the runner who went to pass along the order. He then turned to his trusted enforcers to capture the stranger.

"Yes baron, I will deal with him." Vonn Pinn the leather clad blonde female construct with a red eye growled dutifully to her superior.

"I'm here to you know." Dupree the pirate queen crossed her arms.

"Both of you are to you remember, that I want him alive to talk. If you have to, then hurt him. But DO NOT kill him! Is that understood? His insight into the technology he wields, and the knowledge of where he came from, is too valuable to be wasted." That ordered to his subordinates.

"Just tie my hands why don't ya? *sigh* Oh well, I know I can make do with hurt and maim." Dupree briefly looked disappointed before smiling madly.

"Come Dupree let's capture this intruder, I have to keep him away from the children." Vonn Pinn growled while making her way out.

"No need to tell me twice." Dupree said as she followed the irritable construct.

"He is trapped in engineering I've already sent word for the guards to lock it down." The baron said as he waved them off and face a window.

"That will definitely help." Dupree said coolly.

-SOME TIME LATER-

Thomas had been cornered again in some kind of large engineering room. He was boxed in by locked doors and all kinds of security clanks. He could handle the machines if he had more room to move. What his problem was now were the two apparent females who were here to lock horns with him. the pilot at least had enough room in this area to shine with his acrobatic side. His two opponents walked through the large doors to the area, one of them looking extremely angry, the other had a mad grin on her face.

"So, I'm guessing you two are Baron von jerk face's goons, right?" The pilot said lazily as he gestured to the pirate queen and female construct.

"Shut your mouth, disrespectful peasant! I am Vonn Pinn and you will surrender now boy!" Vonn pinn snarled at the young warfighter.

"Hah baron von jerk face! That's a new one! I like this guy!" Dupree laughed.

"Dupree, focus you wench!" Vonn Pinn snapped to her associate.

"Right, don't worry mister comedian isn't going anywhere." Dupree grumpily assured the construct following the insult.

"Now who's the one being funny? Besides I'm 19 years old, back where I come from they consider me a grown man. I guess it's a good thing they taught me systema and other hand to hand techniques in training." The pilot retorted and cracked his knuckles while loosening his other joints with resounding pops.

"Ooh now what's that systema thing? Sounds Russian, but you don't look like an egghead." Dupree asked her prey.

"Come at me and you'll find out." The pilot replied coolly as he took up a fighting stance.

"You're a glutton for punishment!" Dupree shouted as she raced towards the man who sidestepped her attack and back handed her. He followed it up with an axe kick to her side that sent the pirate queen tumbling across the floor. Vonn pinn rushed him attempting to grab a hold of the trouble making young man. He jumped and over her using his reactivated jump pack and fired his twin P2016 pistols. The rounds bounced off of her reinforced frame whereas they seemed to work on normal clanks. He skidded to a halt and charged the female construct with a devastating punch. For him it was just like punching a simulacrum or a specter. Vonn Pinn grew angrier every moment she fought against the seemingly untouchable acrobat. Dupree recovered and swung her sword at him, only to be countered and parried by a data knife. He then punched the pirate queen in the face and flung her back. She stabbed her sword into the floor and gritted her teeth. The pilot then landed a punishing kick to Vonn Pinn's face and she flew into a bulkhead, denting it. With that moment of time bought, he reengaged with Dupree who went blade to blade with him. the sparks flew as the future soldier's knife clashed against the pirate queen's saber blade. Dupree then drew a gun and started to try copying his systema tactics. While momentarily surprised, it was simply flimsy imitation so the hardened assault pilot had no trouble countering her stolen tactics and headbutting her. Dupree was dazed from the headbutt and unable to avoid a furious counter punch from the heroic pilot. Vonn Pinn recovered looking angrier than ever before as she tried to claw at the pilot viciously. Seeing the pilot briefly off balance and distracted, the pirate queen swept her target's leg and sent him to the ground with a yelp. She then tried to stab him but he used his jump pack to slide out of the way and then retaliated with an upward kick to the face as he backflipped to his feet.

"You're good, *pant* really good, for a green Grasshopper." Dupree said as she wiped blood from her lip, slightly winded from the skirmish.

"Eh, I was trained to be one of the best. Acrobatics and stamina is just step one. You may be my enemy, but you're not half bad yourself, Captain Morgan." Burke coolly explained, acknowledging his opponent and finished with a taunt.

"The name's Bang Dupree the pirate Queen!" She roared, forgetting about her lip.

"Whatever, anyway, bring it because I live for this!" Burke sassed the sassy pirate and rushed her to deliver a knee to the face. The lady pirate ducked under the move and he flew right into a trap set by a waiting vonn pinn. Burke's eyes flew wide open as he was dealt a crushing blow by the angry construct. The hardened pilot felt some of his ribs crack from the impact and yelped in pain. Relying on his remaining adrenaline, Burke was not about to back down and go quietly. He knew that he had to use his abilities sparingly, otherwise it would give away valuable knowledge that they seemed to want. If he was going down then he'd avoid letting them know the secrets he held.

"Give up already boy, it's over!" Vonn Pinn snarled harshly.

"Not till I say it is." The pilot growled as he darted forward in a final ditch effort. He then threw a pulse blade at the angered construct only for it to be caught and thrown to the floor. "Aw nuts and bolts." Burke shut his eyes as he felt the force of Vonn Pinn's fist striking his helmet. Thomas felt the world around starting to fade to black he struggled too get to his one last time through sheer force of will. Holding one last trump card, he pulled the pin and on an EMP grenade a rolled to the side. The device momentarily stunned Vonn Pinn and made her even more furious. He then used the opportunity to cloak and disappear for a brief moment. Knowing he only had a few seconds at best, the pilot looked for a way out. There had to be an escape hatch or emergency maintenance duct somewhere for him to use.

"Find him! He cannot be allowed to escape!" Vonn pinn barked to the pirate.

"Oh ya think?!" Dupree snapped back her fellow inner circle member.

'C'mon there has to be something!' Burke thought frantically as the cloak wore off and he grappled upwards to hide in a small alcove of pipes on the ceiling. As his attackers searched for him below, the pilot kept looking for a way out that wasn't locked down. The shadows proved to be a good friend to the future warfighter as he searched for his escape. He knocked a loose bolt to the floor and it landed right next to Dupree's boot. She looked up to see a faint blue glow on the ceiling and smiled at the opportunity for payback.

"Gotcha!" She quickly drew her sidearm and fired into the mess of pipes. The pilot leapt out of his compromised hiding spot and swung to safety with his grappling hook. Landing on his feet and preparing to go another round, Burke drew his pistols and broke into a sprint just as Vonn Pinn was about to hit him, he slid under her and rapidly fired the semi-automatic pistols. The rounds were having some effect on her at least but not as much as fists apparently. That didn't make any sense to him but what really mattered was getting out of this place in one piece. He then jumped upwards and somersaulted over Dupree.

"That was a pretty neat little disappearing act you pulled, but too bad for you this is over." Dupree said eagerly with a hint of bloodlust in her feminine voice as she raised her sword to the young pilot.

"*sigh* All I wanted to do was just go back home to where I belong, is that seriously too much to ask?" The pilot shook his head and sighed in exasperation at just how bad today was going. He put a hand to his helmet and groaned in frustration.

"Pretty much tough guy. All you had to do was surrender like a good little soldier or whatever you are, and this would never have happened. But here we are." Dupree shrugged.

"And let you guys do whatever you want with me as a prisoner? Fat chance of that. I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm not going down without a fight." Burke briefly crossed his arms before he swiftly blocked an eager strike from Dupree with his combat knife.

"So feisty… I like it!" Dupree said as she crossed blades with the pilot.

"Okay, now you're just being*grunt*weird!" Burke said as he shoved her back.

"Oh, says the guy who can turn invisible and run on walls!" The pirate queen pointed a finger at him

"That's real cute how you think I'm going to monologue or something. When it comes down to survival, pretty much everything's fair game. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm out of here." Burke kept his cool despite the situation.

"You are not going anywhere, this room is sealed, and I severely doubt you can open those doors! Now get on your knees and submit!" Vonn Pinn growled to the seemingly cornered pilot.

"I'd listen this time if I were you, but then again, it'll be more fun to make you hurt more first." Dupree tapped her foot.

"I'll admit, you think you've got me boxed in, and normally you'd be right, but you're not." Burke said coolly as he finally found a secret maintenance hatch under his feet. He stealthily tapped his foot against the plate that provided a shallow sounding echo of hope. He then grinned a wide smile of success under his visor.

"Alright mister magician, then what's your little endgame? Because it looks to me like you've exhausted your bag of tricks so to speak." Dupree said as she and Vonn Pinn closed in on their prey, unaware of the pilot's escape plan.

"That would be true, if I didn't have experience with this type of situation, of course." Burke said smugly.

"Now you're just bluffing to waste time, face it you lost. Cut the act and drop your fancy weapons." Dupree had gotten bored and started being direct.

"Bluffing, am I?" The pilot said as he pulled the pin out of another flashbang grenade and swiftly picked up a large pipe. He briefly twirled the weapon in his hands and knocked out Dupree by hitting her upside the head with his makeshift staff. Burke then used his grappling hook to fling Vonn Pinn into another wall with loud clang sound as she dented the steel. "On that note miss Bang, I bid you adieu!" Burke said with a smile under his visor as he dropped into the tunnel and crawled to safety. He dropped a frag grenade behind himself to seal the entrance to avoid being followed. He could hear the baron's cronies venting their frustrations at his escape. He grinned and continued making his way forward taking a few twists and turns along the way. When he felt safe enough and could no longer hear the sound heavy clanking from the strange old-timey security robot things he reached up and cracked open a hatch above himself. Just as he did so, he looked around to see a orangish-blonde haired girl in a red jumpsuit with glasses and a white cat laying on the bed. "Howdy." He said with a cowboy accent.

"Eep!" The girl then stomped on the hatch in surprise.

"OWWW! That's my head!" The young pilot groaned in pain with his lightly muffled voice as he was bonked back down into the passage.

-END CHAPTER-


	3. The plot thickens

The Frontier Spark

Episode 3: The plot thickens

-AGATHA'S ROOM-

"What the heck was that for?! All I did was say hello!" The muffled voice of Burke shouted from inside the maintenance tunnel under the floor.

"I'm sorry but you barged into my room from under the floor, what did you think I would do?!" The orange haired girl retorted in an equally loud voice.

"Not stomp on my skullcap like that!" The future soldier griped to the girl.

"What are you even doing under my room and who are you anyway?!" The girl asked with her displeasure at the intrusion quite evident.

"Let me up there and I'll tell you what I can! Deal?!" Burke asked in an attempt to strike a bargain out of desperation since the girl seemed friendly enough despite her tap dance on his skull.

"Fine!" The girl stepped off of the plate and Burke ascended the ladder again. The girl took a good look at him and was briefly star struck from his appearance. "Woah your armor, guns, and that helmet, where did you get them? I've never seen anything like them before!"

"*Ahem*" The mystery man cleared his throat impatiently.

"Right, now that you're here, can you tell me what you had to say. Sorry again for the whole head stomping thing." Agatha apologized and scratched the back of her head.

"Ugh, that's gonna hurt later, just like everything else the baron's goons did to me. The last thing I needed was a headache on top of a thrashing. Alright, a deal's a deal. Frontier Militia 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Burke at your service. As for why I'm here and all my gear, well that's complicated." Burke shook his head slightly and griped at the memory of how painful his day had been. He then calmly explained some of his identity.

"Hey we had a deal!" Agatha poked him to accentuate her point.

"Our little bargain was that I tell you my name and why I'm in your room, and you let me in." The future soldier stoically countered with his own points of reason.

"Well then I'm still waiting." Agatha tapped her boot.

"Let's just say that Baron what's-his-face really wants to catch me, and I really don't want to stick around to find out just what he has in store for me. Now if isn't too much trouble, mind if I bunk here for a bit? I'm beat from taking on two of the baron's goons head on." Burke explained his situation and started to lay down on the floor.

"*chuckle* Wait a minute you met the baron and who did you fight?" Agatha chuckled at the quip before realizing what he said and she asked him about the whole ordeal.

"I did, and he's a real interesting piece of work. I fought tooth and nail against some crazy pirate lady named Dupree and a cyborg with one heck of a mean streak, Vonn Pinn I think's her name. She hits like brick wall with fists. That answer your question?" Burke complied with her question and kept on talking.

"Vonn Pinn, you fought her?! You fought her and won?!" Agatha was surprised.

"I wouldn't say I won, more like managed to successfully retreat, given the fact that I'm standing right here and my injuries speak for themselves. Gave those two a good beatdown for sure, but I don't call that a win. Which the reasoning behind why I was hiding in the duct. I wasted a lot of valuable resources during that whole mess." The pilot answered another question and began to feel like he was being interrogated.

"If you're trying to get out of here, could you take me and Krosp with you?" Agatha then asked for a favor from the grumpy stranger. The cat seemed to take interest in this and stated to eye the stranger, sizing him up.

"Forgive my skepticism but, I don't even know who you are, let alone if I can trust you. Plus, I'm not in the best shape right now. And who's Krosp, the cat?" The pilot retorted suspiciously and pointed at the cat who seemed visibly irked.

"Fair enough, I'm Agatha, Agatha Clay." The girl stuck out her hand in a gesture of trust.

"Well we did get off on the wrong foot, and I say again that the name's Thomas Burke, nice to meet ya." Burke shook her hand confidently.

"You're Irish, aren't you?" Agatha asked curiously

"Yeah, I'm from a long line of Irishmen, with a hint of Scottish, Italian, and a few other things in between. Let me guess, the name gave it away, right?" Burke replied with a hint of comedy in his slightly gruff tone.

"Kind of." Agatha shrugged.

"Okay, hey is that your cat?" The pilot asked as he pointed to the annoyed looking feline.

"That's Krosp." Agatha gestured to the cat, who rolled his eyes.

"So that's Krosp, Interesting name for a cat, but I don't judge. So, if you don't mind I'm going to sleep now." The pilot tilted his head at eh cat's name and started to lay down on the floor.

"I didn't say you could sleep here! Someone could find you in here!" Agatha exclaimed out of concern.

"Cut me some slack please, I've been through the wringer today and I need a place to hunker down and get my bearings. How about if you help me, I'll help you? I have some friends who might come looking for me and if we're in the right place, maybe I can get some 'heavy duty' help for us and get myself home where I belong. Somewhere preferably off this ship on solid ground. Not that I mind being in the air, it's just that my friends, including my partner, can't help up here." Burke groaned and then made another offer to the girl for his continued safe haven.

"I'd say with your expertise, and support that you claim to have, we could join forces and form an alliance. It would be mutually beneficial for both of our parties." Having finally made up his mind about the stranger, the cat stood up on two legs and spoke eloquently in a clear and consistent manner.

"Oh great, now I'm seeing a talking cat thanks to a concussion I got, glorious." Burke put a hand to his helmet in grief.

"For your information, I am king of all cats, and I am 'talking', and 'we' 'can' help each other. Take off your helmet, because if we are going to work together there must be no secrets. I would ask more about this Militia you mentioned, but for now that can wait." Krosp gestured to himself and then proceeded to strike a bargain with the pilot.

"That… actually makes sense, as strange as this whole thing is. Oh, this has just not been my best day." Burke paused for a moment before agreeing and doing as the cat named Krosp had asked. He removed his helmet and revealed a handsome face with a faux hawk of chocolate hair, blue eyes, and a light goatee. He gave a comedic grin and surprisingly got a chuckle out of Agatha. "So, what do you think?" He asked coolly.

"Y-you're… well…" Agatha fumbled her words and blushed at the sight of the handsome young Irish boy who clearly appeared to be around her own age.

"I'm… what? Is there something on my face?" Burke asked with a look of concern.

"N-no, not at all! I just wasn't expecting you to look so… never mind." Agatha turned away hiding her red cheeks.

"Okay, night." The worn-out warfighter finally nodded off, forgetting to put his helmet back on due to lack of priority in comparison to resting. After a few minutes, Agatha and Krosp decided to carry on speaking about their predicament as well as the prospect of trusting the stranger. The cat seemed to tease her a bit for how she reacted to the reveal of the young man's face. The young spark huffed in annoyance at that and the two of talked until they eventually went to sleep.

-BACK IN THE MILITIA RESEARCH COMPLEX-

The good doctor Vahlen was busy working on a way to track down the wayward pilot. If she failed, she would hear from a very angry commander Briggs with the full might of the militia's higher ups behind her. Mira was not having the best of days as she tirelessly worked with her team to repair the stargate. Her team of renowned researchers and engineers were going to be paid well over their usual rate for the good work they were doing. The doctor eventually sat down on her chair in the office she was assigned as project leader to take a break from her work. She had been trying all sorts of methods to restore the ancient relic to working order once more, and so far, some attempts in tandem with others had been marginally successful.

Another thing she had been lucky enough to discover was the coordinates for the portal's previous exit point. What was rather unsettling though is that it was in alternate timeline in the 1800's. Not to mention that from what limited data VX received from his pilot at the time, it was on board an airship. What puzzled the scientist is the fact that Zeppelins weren't seen on such a scale until shortly before the first world war on earth. That made her quite intrigued though as to how at that was even remotely possible at that particular time period in a parallel universe. There was also the prospect of the strange humanoid creatures the lieutenant had discovered alongside the people before the portal closed and his helmet camera's feed was lost.

It was very fascinating, but she knew that now wasn't the time for curiosity. She knew finding the lost soldier was her top priority in this mess and she had to find a way out of it. If she did not, the consequences would be severe, and coming from commander Sarah Briggs herself. After further time spent on her work, she managed to use some of the gate's excess technology to build a tracking device to locate the tracker in the lieutenant's helmet. Meanwhile, VX had been very eager to return to his pilot as it was part of his programming in two of the three Vanguard protocols. The titan had been patient so far but it seemed to be asking for regular updates from the good doctor.

-THE NEXT DAY-

Thomas had been rudely awakened by Krosp and returned to his spot in the tunnel. Agatha had been nowhere to be found the cat then informed him of the girl's sleepwalking and how she'd nearly disassembled the helmet. This slightly annoyed the pilot as his favorite brain bucket was how he linked to his partner back home. Thanked asked for a thank you and received it turn from a grateful Burke. The cat then informed him of where he suspected the girl had gone during her walk that night. That seemed strange to him but it didn't matter, he had to meet up with her and find a way off the massive airship. As he made his way through the maintenance ducts he found Agatha in the laboratories with another young man. The guy in question seemed personable enough, but something was off about him. Using his grapple line, the pilot stealthily lowered himself down to a safe distance above. He then swung to another low hanging shaft and climbed inside.

"PSST! Hey Agatha!" Thomas whispered from the shaft above her out of direct sight.

"Thomas?! Where are you?" She asked in a whisper as she looked around the room.

"Up here, in the duct." Burke shined his helmet visor down into the room and the girl looked up relieved.

"What you made come here?" Agatha asked her associate in a hushed tone.

"What do you mean by that? You should know why, we're supposed to be getting out of here! Remember?" The soldier from another world reminded the new friend he'd made.

"Oh right!" The girl came to a realization.

"Who is that guy anyway?" Burke stuck an arm out and pointed at the important looking guy with orange hair.

"That's Gilgamesh, the baron's son. Right now, I'm acting as his assistant." She gestured to where the Baron's son stood.

"So, the guy who sent those jerks after me, is this guy's old man?" The pilot said with a hint ire in his voice.

"Yep." She really popped the P to emphasize. "But he doesn't seem too bad."

"Alright, we'll talk later, I think it's best I change my position." Burke said tactically as the baron's son turned his attention back to Agatha.

"Okay Thomas." The girl whispered as the Irish boy disappeared. After finding a new spot to watch and listen, he shook his head at the sight of the various machines. One was way larger than the others and more intimidating. Agatha called it a clank from what he could hear and it made him shake his head more as the two people talked below. A few minutes later, a loud alarm blared and Burke took that as his que to leave with all due haste. Then he saw Agatha briefly argue with Gilgamesh over a guy named Othar. The girl ran into another room and Burke followed after her by his own means. He then finally bore witness to the man named Othar and immediately rolled his eyes in annoyance. A minute later the machine with Agatha took off flying with Othar. He gaped at the sight of the contraption's function and pinched his helmet where his nose bridge would be. A door then creaked open and ugly bug-like creatures bolted towards Agatha. In a split-second, Burke burst from the shaft and dove to the floor firing his dual pistols rapidly, shredding the creatures to bits. As the door was about to open further and more critters would spill through, he instinctively tossed a frag grenade into the hall and slammed the door shut. With a deafeningly loud boom, the pounding on the heavy metal door briefly subsided.

"Burke thank you so much for that! Oh, am I glad to see you again, we have to get out here!" A grateful Agatha huffed as and puffed as she faced the familiar glow of Burke's visor.

"Your welcome for the save, and the feeling is mutual. What in god's name are those things anyway?!"

"Those 'things' are slaver wasps! How have you never heard of-?!" Agatha shouted but was cut off by Burke.

"That door won't hold long, so run for our lives now, ask questions later!" The pilot said as he and the girl took off, with Burke keeping a steady pace for her to follow behind. The two of them ran for a few minutes until a certain baron's son ran straight into Burke.

"OOF!" The two young men slammed into each other and landed on their backs. "YOU?!" They pointed at each other and drew their weapons.

"Miss clay, come with me! That man is dangerous like Othar!" Gilgamesh said to the girl as he pointed his sword at Burke, while the pilot pointed his pistols defensively.

"Oi, she's with me rich boy!" Burke shouted indignantly. There was a brief standoff before Agatha decided to be the voice of reason.

"Thomas, Gil!" Agatha shouted their names in anger.

"What?!" They shouted as they looked at her.

"WE HAVE TO MOVE; SLAVER WASPS ARE COMING!" Agatha pointed to the direction from she and Burke had ran from.

"That cursed hive engine, what was beetle thinking?!" Gilgamesh growled.

"Hey, truce until this is over?" Burke said pragmatically.

"Fine, a temporary truce to survive." Gilgamesh agreed reluctantly.

"Works for me." The pilot shrugged gruffly.

-END CHAPTER-


	4. Grub killers

The Frontier Spark

Episode 4: Grub killers

-WITH BURKE, GIL, AND AGATHA-

"Now that we're not going to kill each other, do you have a plan rich boy? Because I don't think I can kill all those things on my own without some seriously heavier firepower." Burke said as he lazily twirled one of his twin pistols.

"We'll make our way to my lab, that should buy us time!" Gilgamesh replied.

"That sounds like a good plan!" Agatha chimed in.

"Fine by me, let's move!" Burke said as he took the lead with Gilgamesh directing them towards his laboratory in a desperate bid to reach it before the slaver wasps would break down the security door. Burke knew he just had to get through this day and he might get a chance to make it off the airship eventually, that is if his temporary ally didn't try to capture him after the truce was over. As they ran he briefly tuned out Agatha and the rich boy's talking to maintain focus on the objective. It wasn't the first time he'd been in a stressful situation to be sure, but it was however the first time he'd had to deal with monsters instead of machines and mercenaries. He started listening again when they finally reached the lab and hopefully a supply of items to use as makeshift weaponry.

"There it is, get inside quickly!" Gilgamesh said they arrived at the lab door. He and burke then worked together to close the door behind them, slamming it shut. "The door is sealed but we'd better hurry."

"Oh, ya think?!" Burke scoffed sarcastically, earning a slight glare of annoyance from the baron's son.

"Whew, that was scary. But we'll be okay right? Once we get to Gilgamesh's arsenal, those things shouldn't have a chance." Agatha said hopefully.

"My what?" Gilgamesh looked at her in confusion.

"Your weapons! Stuff you've built!" Agatha replied. "I never could find them so this'll be interesting. What about a good death ray? That'd be perfect!"

"I don't have a death ray!" Gilgamesh snapped.

"It's too bad I'm not on solid ground yet, cause if it's a death ray you want, I know a guy." Burke bragged smugly with his hands behind his head in a lazy manner.

"You know someone who has a death ray?!" Agatha asked him giddily.

"Sort of. You know what, we get out of this and you might get a little light show for the trouble as a bonus." The future soldier shrugged.

"That would be amazing!" The girl shouted as she quickly hugged him. She then realized what she was doing and blushed hard before letting go of him. "Err… sorry about that." She said with slight embarrassment.

"Ahem, am I interrupting something?" Gilgamesh said impatiently.

"Nope, but getting back on track, you don't have anything we can use to push these things back?! If that's true then why the heck did we run here instead of getting out?!" Burke turned his attention away from Agatha and started to rant at the son of the baron.

Suddenly the slaver wasps broke through the door and burke opened fire with his assault rifle to hold them off. The warfighter of the future let loose a storm of steel from his trusty rifle, gunning down several insectoid abominations in a row. One tried to attack him while he reloaded but Gilgamesh slashed through it with his sword. Burke nodded to the dictator's son in thanks before getting back to back with him to battle the beastly bugs. Agatha thought frantically as she watched the two boys slowly getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of creatures rushing them at once. Then at that moment a strange sound rang in the air and Agatha took on a look of determination.

"We can't hold these things off all day!" Burke shouted as he holstered his empty rifle and slashed an eager slaver wasp with his combat knife. Just as another one was about to hit him, Agatha killed it with a weapon she'd fashioned. "Thanks!" Burke shouted as used the opportunity to reload his weapons.

"Ha it works!" She said as she took down a few more before the tide of enemies briefly subsided. "Here Gilgamesh, you're the fencer."

"It's my lightning generator, sort of." Gil exclaimed while pointing at the gizmo Agatha had picked up and modified.

"Yes, the Heterodyne device can recharge them instantly." Agatha said proudly.

"Wow I knew it was a power source but I'd really thought there was more to it." The son of the baron exclaimed in surprise.

"Not that this isn't interesting but-" Burke said lazily before picking up a signature on his motion tracker. "Woah look out!" Burke shouted as he got between his unsuspecting comrades and a slaver wasp before, letting loose another burst of gunfire. The monster was mowed down by the assault rifle burst and Burke continued his barrage until magazine emptied, killing several more of them. Suddenly they vanished in flash of blue light before reappearing in another area. Burke decided not to focus on that and just deal with the battle.

"I thought you didn't fence!" Gilgamesh remarked as Agatha swiped at the creatures.

"This is isn't fencing, this is swinging wildly!" She replied.

"Couldn't you have used a longer cable?!" Gilgamesh shouted while he continued to fight the monsters.

"It's what was there!" Agatha snapped as she stabbed a slaver wasp in the face.

"Stop arguing you two and focus on fighting! These things are just going to keep coming after us, right?!" Burke roared pragmatically as kicked a slaver wasp upside its head and emptied a pistol magazine into its skull. He then tossed a frag grenade into the swarm, killing a large group. "We have to get moving and figure out where they're coming from! Its up to us to deal with it or we'll keep getting swarmed until we die!"

"We could try to find an exit!" Agatha suggested escape.

"No, he's right they'll never stop unless we destroy them." Gilgamesh agreed with his temporary ally.

"Then we have to destroy the hive engine!" Agatha replied.

"Alright let's go! We don't have all day!" Burke barked to his allies and the trio dashed for the hive engine's location. Burke focused his fire on the enemies at mid-range with his rifle while his compatriots used their makeshift shock swords to kill the creatures as they attacked. Burke threw out his grapple line and slammed a salver wasp into a larger group following it up with a grenade. In order to conserve ammunition, the pilot temporarily swapped to his dual pistols. While less powerful individually, firing both pistols in tandem was serving to be almost as useful against the slaver wasps. The creatures continued trying to eliminate their prey as the group advanced with Burke shielding his comrades repeatedly with suppressive gunfire. All the while though Burke felt annoyed that he couldn't solve this problem on his own which would be much faster although still difficult without his Titan to lend him some much needed brute force, intel, and a game plan. But those remained at the back of his mind as he focused on defending Agatha and Gilgamesh, though slightly less enthused about helping the latter.

Agatha couldn't help but be thankful despite the dire situation. Burke was proving to be more than she had originally thought as she saw him defend against the onslaught of the ravenous monsters that besieged them. Despite his somewhat abrasive nature the strange soldier was exceeding her expectations in combat as he bravely marched the group to where the chaos had started. With Gilgamesh providing directions to where he believed the trouble had started they would have a chance. She could say that Thomas had certainly proven himself reliable beyond a shadow of a doubt several times over.

Eventually they began to reach the area closest to the hive engine where the creatures were coming from. As they did so the Slaver wasps strangely seemed to back off from the fighting, assuming defensive positions rather than blindly attacking their enemies. This did not go unnoticed by Burke but he remained silent until finally the monsters had backed off almost completely making him very uneasy.

"Why are these things not trying to kill us anymore?" Burke said as he scanned his rifle across several of the creatures who only took defensive stances in response.

"Because we are going toward the hive engine." Gilgamesh replied.

"I thought they were defending it." Agatha said in confusion.

"To a degree. Mainly, they'll establish a perimeter and herd everyone inside toward the center." Gilgamesh clarified.

"Hold on there, you're not what I think you're saying are you?" Burke looked at him in confusion.

"We'll be taken over and then 'our' job, will be to defend it." Gilgamesh confirmed.

"One of you kill me first." Agatha said darkly.

"Right." Gilgamesh replied.

"*sigh*None of us are going to die like that if I have a say in it, count on that." Burke said in a dead serious tone.

"What makes you so sure?" Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow at the soldier's change in demeanor.

"One, because I said so, and two, because I didn't come this far to become some butt ugly grub! Got it?!" Burke growled as he pointed his finger at his two comrades. "Now both of you stow that talk, stop thinking about dying, and focus on staying alive!"

He was met with irritated silence from the baron's son and decided to take the silence as a reluctant yes. Agatha didn't know what to feel about the hardened soldier's harsh words of conviction, as they were condescending in one way but sincere in another. As the group neared the lair of the hive engine Burke's trigger finger started to itch. After an uncomfortable walk in silence, they finally arrived at the hive engine's lair to see the beast that had been formed around it.

"Holy crap." Burke remarked as he observed the mighty hive queen. "Look at that ugly mother*hish*" His helmet speaker cut out abruptly. He then smacked the headgear and it started working again.

"Look at that thing, how do we kill that?" Gilgamesh asked to no one in particular.

"Quickly." Agatha said with a look of determination.

"Agreed." Burke followed Agatha's lead. Just then the beast let out a call of some sort, alerting its legion of creatures.

SCREEEE!

"What was that?" Agatha said in fear.

"Bad news." Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes.

"And they won't let us out now." Agatha said as the creatures closed in.

"Obviously." Burke replied, readying his guns.

"Yes, we'd better-" Gilgamesh said as the slaver wasps closed in and were about to snatch away their weapons.

Burke reacted quickly and rapidly swapped to his pistols, blasting several creatures to bullet riddled bits. "You two figure out how kill this thing, I'll hold them off!" Burke roared as he jumped and spun in the air using his jump kit. He unleashed a flurry of hand to hand attacks mixed with his pistol fire. "Come get some!" Burke roared furiously as he battled the creatures. Making expert use of the large room, Burke jumped to the walls, bouncing between them and several crates as well skillfully dodging the attacks of the slaver wasps and hive queen. With a graceful leap through the air, time briefly slowed down as Burke fired both of his pistols at the heads of several slaver wasps. Their exploded one after the other as the bullets whizzed towards them and then out the back of their craniums.

The militia pilot valiantly continued his efforts to hold off the rising tide of carnivorous insects with all the tools at his disposal. He briefly disappeared using his cloak mode before reappearing and grappling a slaver wasp, then hurling it at the queen. The angered monster batted away the simple drone and showed even more rage towards the advanced warfighter. Burke just flipped it off and kept on blasting away the insects, covering his allies several times in the process.

With his options beginning to run dry, he threw a grenade at the large beast, the resulting explosion managed to hurt it. Dazed and confused from the blast, the beast reeled backward slightly and shook its head. Seeing an opening, Burke fired his rifle at its face causing it to focus on him rather than Agatha and Gilgamesh. Multiple rounds dinged and cracked the dome on its head, causing it even more pain. Suddenly Agatha's little clanks stormed the room to lend their aid in the battle. The entire trio was grateful for the distraction as they helped in combating the beasts with their sheer numbers. At that moment Agatha seized the opportunity and grabbed Gilgamesh by the arm and shouted at burke to toss another grenade. After a brief bout of confusion, the three of them attacked the hive queen together, killing it. The beast roared in pain one last time before falling to the floor with its mechanical parts hissing and sparking wildly before igniting in a loud and messy explosion from the grenade. Burke landed between the two of them and popped open his helmet visor to breathe.

"Well *huff* that was a load of fun!" Burke huffed in between breaths.

"Ha ha that was great!" Agatha shouted at the apparent victory.

"The warriors are just standing around, weird." Gilgamesh said just before both he and burke were swiftly kissed on the cheek by an overjoyed Agatha. Both young men immediately went bright red in the face from the sweet experience. Burke snapped his helmet shut again to hide the blush on his face as he had never been kissed before by a girl he liked. Gilgamesh stood there briefly stunned with a star struck grin on his face as he was in the same position as his fellow male.

"We did it!" Agatha shouted gleefully. Suddenly the corpse of the hive queen began to bubble up ominously, with the bulge quickly growing in size.

"Or not… MOVE!" Burke shouted as he grabbed both of his allies and hurled them forward. Surprisingly enough, both of them landed on their feet, breaking into a sprint. Burke jogged at his comfortable beside them while throwing shock grenades at the furious swarm of lethal insects. "Is your old man even more insane than I thought?!" The elite pilot shouted at Gilgamesh.

"I'm starting to wonder that myself!" Gilgamesh replied.

"Does that really matter at this point?!" Agatha shouted at the boys.

"NO!" Both boys responded.

"But this does, you got any more ideas rich boy?! A failsafe, emergency plan, anything?!" Burke asked his temporary ally.

"Yes, there should be an access panel hidden up ahead somewhere! It'll be disguised but handy!" Gilgamesh replied. "Yes here." He then immediately spotted the out of place panel and opened it. When he did so, a set of large steel doors loudly slammed shut behind the trio. "There that part of the lab is sealed."

"Correct me if I'm wrong but, the last time we hid behind steel doors, those things busted through minutes later!" Burke groaned as he frantically reloaded his weapons.

"They just have to hold long enough for us to activate the toxic gas! Once that floods the area they'll die off!" Gilgamesh answered.

"Wait!" Agatha slapped Gilgamesh's hand away from the controls. "Somebody activated that hive engine on purpose!" She said as she brought out her tools and went to work. "Let me look at this!"

"Got it! Oi, rich boy!" Burke shouted to Agatha and then to Gilgamesh.

"Will you stop calling me that!" The baron's son snapped.

"Then get a shorter name! Otherwise, quit your whining and help me cover her!" Burke retorted and started fighting against wasps that crawled from all sides.

"Grr, why you arrogant-!" Gilgamesh was about to respond but was cut off.

"BOYS FOCUS!" Agatha snapped at the two feuding rivals.

"R-right!" Both of them said sheepishly as they got to work killing slaver wasps that bypassed the doors for a few minutes.

"Agatha, how's that system coming along?!" Burke asked as he blew the head off a slaver wasp.

"Anytime soon would be good!" Gilgamesh shouted in agreement with his rival while and the soldier reluctantly worked together.

"Working on it! Someone rerouted the gas line to what I think may be main ventilator for this area!" She replied. "Everything but the hive lab would've gotten the poison." Agatha said as she worked quickly to undo the sabotage to the vent system. The sounds of battle and arguing between the two boys continued until finally she finished with the lengthy repair. "Okay its-!" Agatha was about to confirm her completion of the work but stopped when she saw a bright blue energy bubble obscuring the boys that they were strangely unaware of.

"Well?!" Gilgamesh shouted as he slashed through a slaver wasp with both shock swords.

"Uh, it's all set." Agatha replied, still put off slightly by the energy bubble only she could see.

"Then hit it!" Gilgamesh barked.

"What he said!" Burked agreed.

"Err, right." Agatha said as she activated the gas and the creatures immediately began to drop like flies while the toxic fumes were pumped into the right place. A glass barrier slid closed, separating the three of them from the deadly gas and dying monsters. Burke took a moment to sit back against a wall and relax for a quick break he felt he'd earned.

"It looks like it worked, I guess the baron will have an easy time mopping up, then." Agatha said as she watched the monstrous parasites die off behind the barrier.

"Yeah, you know from everything I've learned about slaver I would've thought that it would be tougher." Gilgamesh

"Heh, tougher? That wasn't exactly a stroll in the woods you know." Burke scoffed.

"Will you just-!" Gilgamesh was about to retort but Burke stopped him.

"Before you start, …I'm sorry." The future soldier apologized.

"Come again?" Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow.

"You heard me, you got guts. I'm sorry for a being a huge jerk okay. Can we cut each other a little slack, especially since it's been a rough day for all of us? I think we all deserve that much at least." Burke said in a tired voice and offered a hand to the baron's son.

"Alright fine, I accept your apology." Gilgamesh shook the pilot's hand.

"You still have a really long name though." Burke grinned under his helmet.

"Don't push it." Gilgamesh replied sourly.

"Oh, he's not so bad." Agatha interjected.

-END CHAPTER-


	5. Breakout

The Frontier Spark

Episode 5: Breakout

"Wait there's something in your hair." Gilgamesh said to Agatha as he noticed a glint of metal hidden under some of her hair.

"Some sort of connector from the gas system. It's kind of pretty." Agatha said as she looked at the little shiny band of metal. Burke watched for a moment as Gilgamesh briefly shot the pilot a smug look before explaining a little idea of his to Agatha. He explained how he was going to marry Agatha to spite his father. At that moment Burke took the perfect opportunity to strike back hard with some humorous retaliation.

"Wait a minute! You aren't fixing on proposing to her, are you r- I mean Gilgamesh?!" Burke said in surprise and slight anger but still catching himself before insulting the dictator's son. "God your name is so long! Anyway, ha that's rich!" Burke burst out humorously.

"Pfft hahaa! You're both so funny!" She responded, cackling with laughter.

"No wait, it looks like he's serious Agatha…" Burke trailed off calmly. "Why don't we laugh even harder?! Bwahaha!" The pilot joined in the laugh fest.

"Not funny you-whoever you are!" Gilgamesh snapped but couldn't land a solid comeback since Burke had never mentioned his name to the son of the baron.

"For me that just makes it funnier since you have no serious comeback!" Burke said with a grin under his helmet. "Ah, anonymity is just so sweet right now. So, here's some advice boy-o, quit while you're behind!"

"You just want me to marry you to annoy your father? How romantic."

"From where I'm sitting, I'd say this is comedy gold! Not as good as when my Da gets drunk and goes on a bender, but it's something!" Burke cackled loudly with laughter at the situation. Suddenly a large figure swung down from the ceiling in a swift action.

"HA-HA!" A large man bellowed as he snatched Agatha from where she stood.

"What in the -?!" Burke shouted in surprise as the man swung upwards to a support beam. "Agatha, you alright up there?!" He called out to her as she argued with the mystery man.

"Agatha, get away from him!" Gilgamesh shouted up to them.

What's the matter Wulfenbach, you and your associate didn't expect a hero to rescue a damsel from your unwelcome advances?" The large man retorted.

"They weren't unwelcome!" Gilgamesh snapped.

"Oi, big guy, get your hands off her!" Burke roared at the delusional brute.

"I'm fine, and I'm not done yelling at you yet Gilgamesh!" Agatha shouted down to the boys.

"Yes, you are. We've got to go, and he has to die!" Othar said as he drew a gun and fired at Gilgamesh.

"Hit the dirt!" Burke shouted as he dove for Gilgamesh and the shot whizzed right by his torso. Gilgamesh was briefly stunned by the fact that his own disliked rival had just saved his life. Burke was about to return fire, but Agatha beat him to it as she bit down on the delusional brute's arm.

"You… saved my life." Gilgamesh said as he exhaled from the experience.

"Don't you ever forget it." Burke said as he grappled upwards to help Agatha. Gilgamesh snapped out of his daze and chased after Burke in a race to help their mutual acquaintance. As the large man argued with Agatha, Burke swung in and kicked him in the face, knocking him off balance with a tooth falling out. Burke dropped down and swung himself upward on the other side to see Gilgamesh swinging off with Agatha. When they all landed safely on another support beam Gilgamesh released a rope, causing a massive trap to fall and knock the man straight out of the airship.

"He's fallen out of the airship! I went to all that trouble to rescue him, and you killed him!" Agatha was mortified by Gilgamesh's actions.

"Uh hello, Agatha? He was a damn psychopath!" Burke snorted to the girl.

"On that you and I can actually agree. Besides, I've seen him survive much worse. Trust me, when you get to know him better you'll want to throw him out of a window yourself." Gilgamesh deadpanned to his associates.

"I want to throw any number of people out of a window, but I control myself!" Agatha snapped to the baron's heir.

"Uh huh, forget eloping, we'll go straight to my father and he'll get us married right away. The sooner the world sees you as mine, the safer you'll be." Gilgamesh provided his reasoning on why he should get Agatha's hand in marriage.

"What is it with you two?! I am not your personal property or Othar's!" Agatha snapped to the son of the Baron. "He's the only one who has some sense around here!" She then gestured to Burke who only shrugged coolly. Though he hid a look of smugness under his visor that would betray his outward demeanor.

"He can't protect you from what's out there, he's a nobody! And you're going to be someone's personal property unless we do something now!" Gilgamesh shouted at her. "You've never been outside of Beetleburg, you don't stand a chance!"

"For the love of-! Just shut your damn mouth Gil, ya fricking moron! She said no, you stupid jerk, so take your rejection like a man! She does stand a chance, you pompous dillweed!" Burke roasted the son of the baron like he was born to do so. Gilgamesh was taken aback by the pilot's latest insult barrage and was about to respond accordingly.

'Burke.' Agatha blushed slightly at the soldier speaking the truth.

"Me, pompous?! How can you be so self-righteous?!" Gilgamesh shot back at the pilot.

"I stand up for something bigger than myself for one! What do you stand for eh?!" Burke got in his face and growled like an angry dog.

"Oh really? Then what's that little deal you have with her?!" Gilgamesh butted heads with the future soldier and pointed to Agatha.

"None of your business!" Burke snarled in fury.

"Both of you stop!" Agatha shouted in annoyance as she had enough of the petty argument. Just after that outburst, Gilgamesh was silenced by a large fist that hit him in the face. Burke had flinched backwards as Gilgamesh hit the ground unconscious. The future soldier looked to se a man and woman stand by Agatha in a calm manner.

"Was that boy bothering you dear?" The woman spoke to Agatha.

"Lilith, Adam, you hit him?" Agatha said in shock from the sudden surprise.

"He'll be fine dear. Who is he, and who is this young man?" Lilith soothed to the girl, and then gestured to both of the boys.

"That's Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, he wants me to marry him. He kind of insists." Agatha pointed to the boy on the ground then gestured to Burke who was standing up straight at what he assumed were Agatha's parents. "And that is my friend, Thomas Burke. He's been helping me try to get off this airship."

"He seems like a fine gentleman." Lilith complimented the pilot.

"Well thank ya ma'am. I couldn't have gotten this far without Agatha's help." Burke said sheepishly.

"It's time to leave." Lilith said as she scooped up Agatha and took off running.

"So, you think I shouldn't marry Gilgamesh then?" Agatha asked her the woman carrying her.

"We're leaving right now; your friend can come with us." She replied as the whole group bolted for an exit.

"How?!" Agatha shouted incredulously.

"No disrespect ma'am, but I've been trying for a while to get off this tub!" The Irish pilot said as he ran beside them.

"None taken, we've been following the castle on the ground. This sudden burst of activity, all those ships leaving, it was simple enough to commandeer one of the smaller vessels." Lilith said as she ripped open a steel door, which shocked Burke as he'd had to receive 'enhancements' and he couldn't do that. "We'll leave the same way." Lilith answered coolly.

"Uh, no offense ma'am, but… how in god's name can you rip open solid metal doors?!" Burke shouted in utter confusion at how a normal seeming person was able to rip a metal door from its hinges like it was sheet metal and staples.

"That's a secret young man." Lilith replied curtly, which left Burke slightly annoyed, but he knew better than to complain about it.

"This place is huge! How did you find me?!" Agatha asked.

"We have done this thing before dear, we just looked for the center of the chaos and there you were. We knew something like this would happen if your locket was removed." Lilith answered her in a matter-of-factly tone before griping about Agatha's locket. That immediately caught Burke's attention, and he wondered about it.

'Locket?' Burke thought curiously as he pondered the situation, there was certainly more to his new friend than he thought.

"You started to break through at an early age." Lilith said as she began to explain the locket's necessity.

"You knew I was a spark?!" Agatha shouted, clearly upset from the revelation.

"Your uncle made the locket to keep you from breaking through completely." Lilith replied.

"But, but, I was so stupid! How could you let me live like that?!" The orange haired spark cried out in in confusion.

"We were hiding you! Young sparks never survive without powerful protection!" Lilith retorted as her supposed husband carried Agatha under his hulking arm. Burke then listened to her explain the reason behind why Agatha's powers were kept in check. The whole explanation just gave Burke a rotten feeling in his gut about just how strange and backwards this version of earth was. He just tried to keep up with the three of them as they made their way to freedom. Just as Lilith was about to get to Agatha's family history, they ran into the baron and his forces. The room was tense with a deathly silence until Burke stepped forward, with a cocky attitude in his body language.

"Well we meet again baron what's your face! Figured I'd be off this tub before I ever saw you again. Here's how this is going to go, I stick around and beat the crud out of you, they go free." Burke said as he tugged on his gloves and entered a fighting stance.

"That won't be happening." The baron narrowed his eyes.

"Vait ponch? Judy?" one of the jagermonsters piped up in recognition of the two adults with the teenagers. The baron then smacked the lowly monster and ordered his subordinates to keep them out and seal the area.

"Um, no baron there's been a mistake, these are my parents Adam and Lilith Clay." Agatha chimed in.

"Punch, Judy, so you're the unfindable clays. This explains so much. But the girl, she's not your daughter." The baron said as he scrutinized the two people with the fugitives. The baron then deduced out loud that she was a member of the Heterodyne family for everyone in the room to hear. He argued with Adam and Lilith for a few more moments before Burke lost his temper at the whole ordeal.

"Oi, what am I here ya big jerk, chopped liver?!" Burke had a tick mark on his helmet in frustration.

"I'll deal with you later! I want an explanation from them!" The Baron growled at the young pilot.

That lit a fire in Burke and he was more than ready to brawl. "No way, we duke it out here! You and me, come on!" Burke said as he charged head on at the Baron. He just barely avoided a retaliating strike from the well-built older man. Burke sprung up from his sliding position to uppercut the Baron. The pilot didn't let his momentum go to waste as he grappled the ceiling and then took a shot at Von Pinn with his pistol. The clank in black blocked his rounds and then went to attack him. From there a huge fight ensued and Burke found the odds stacked against him as he took on multiple opponents at once.

Punch and Judy were surprised at the young fighter's courage when he took on all the various opponents at once. Agatha could see that her friend was either very brave or insane when he did that. Either way he was doing something few others would have the nerve to even think by themselves. She then noticed the blush on her face again as Burke kicked a clank in the face and broke its optics.

The pilot continued his stand against the Baron and his forces but was being overwhelmed by sheer number of skilled individuals in the fight. He parried a strike from Vonn Pinn and tried to take a direct blow from the baron but was knocked into a wall. Burke held his chest in pain but refused to back down. He sprinted back into the heat of battle with a loud cry of determination. Howling like a furious wolf, Burke ripped several grenades from his belt and tossed them into the crowd. He kneeled on the ground at his moment to rest. Agatha saw her friend stunned and without a moment of thought she ran to her friend and helped him to his feet.

"Burke, what were you thinking?!" Agatha shouted to her friend as she helped move to a safer spot.

"I was buying you guys time to run!" Burke said as he and Agatha witnessed Adam/Punch get ripped apart by a very angry Vonn Pinn.

"Adam!" Agatha shouted in horror as she watched the man die.

"Agatha, take your friend and go! Get to castle heterodyne!" Judy ordered to the frantic girl.

"What?! But-?!" She started to say but was unable to finish.

"We love you now run! Lilith said as she hurled the tow of them to an upper level, just before Vonn Pinn could intercept them. Burke drifted near the edge of consciousness as he was helped along by some of the group he'd been thrown to. He heard Krosp the cat king return to take charge and lead them to freedom. Agatha was happy to meet with her cousin Theo who was a part of the group of young sparks. The advanced warfighter summoned enough strength to walk on his own eventually until Vonn Pinn caught up with them. One of the group stayed behind to fight her as the others ran on ahead. Burke cursed himself at feeling so useless, and clutched his chest as it ached. Soon enough, the rest of group stopped as well to delay or convince the Baron, Burke knew that would fail but said nothing. Eventually they finally reached a small flying contraption to escape on, and waiting right beside it was that same annoying man from earlier. Before he could say anything, Burke growled angrily and punched the man who Agatha, and her cousin Theo who had joined them earlier, called Othar, square in the face.

"Ooof you broke my nose!" Othar bawled on the ground.

"Shut up, shut up, **SHUT UP**! Quit your whining you big stupid baby! I've had it through the roof today so stick a sock in it!" Burke ranted at the overtly annoying psycho.

"Remind me not to make you mad." Theo remarked at Burke's methods.

"Don't act like him and we'll get along fine. I needed that so badly, hooah!" Burke replied with a huff of triumph. Theo and Agatha said their goodbyes to each other as they started to leave the airship, bound for freedom. Burke sat down while Othar got up from his moment of pain, climbed aboard, and took the helm. Several explosion sounded off throughout the airship, and Othar mentioned his explosives. Burke didn't care though and was about fall asleep. That was until Othar pointed a weapon at Agatha to which Burke struck the psycho in his face one last time and caused him to fall off of the flying machine. Then Burke once again attempted to fall asleep and rest for a few minutes, Agatha and Krosp nodded in understanding as he did so and he shut his eyes.

-END CHAPTER-


	6. A walk in the woods

The Frontier Spark

Episode 6: A Walk in the woods

-THE NEXT MORNING-

After floating along through the night, the flying contraption began to descend, and Agatha woke up Krosp, then focused on Burke. "Thomas, Wake up!" Burke stirred from his sleep thanks to being shaken by an agitated Agatha.

"*grunt* What, I'm trying to sleep?" The pilot griped as he sat up from his resting spot.

"We're losing altitude!" Agatha said in slightly panicked tone.

"Huh?! Oh, damn that's right, that stupid loud mouth probably shot a hole in the balloon." Burke cocked his head in confusion. He then remembered what Othar had done just after Burke had smacked him the face, which threw him off the transport.

"I patched the hole, but it must have given out." Agatha griped.

"Figures with our luck." Burke grunted in agreement.

"Well look who decided to wake up." Krosp said in an unamused tone.

"Right, keep forgetting you can talk, still need to get used to that." The pilot grumbled under his breath, so even the cat king couldn't hear him. "So, I figure you know what to do about this, eh?" Burke shook his head slightly at the talking cat and put a hand to his helmet as he spoke to Agatha.

"Of course, we'll land once we clear this peak if we can." Agatha replied.

"Well looks like we'll be enjoying a quiet little walk in the woods then." Burke decided to be optimistic for what it was worth, at least he'd be on solid ground again.

"You're optimistic about us crashing!" Agatha snapped.

"Well panicking sure doesn't help a bit that's for sure! Look, just focus on getting us on the ground safely. You can handle that." Burke tried to keep a cool head as encouraged his orange haired ally.

"Easy for you to say, you're not the one flying!" The bespectacled girl retorted.

Burke then noticed that they were descending even faster though and began to get slightly unnerved. "We're coming in a bit fast, aren't we?!" As he said that, the ground started to get even closer at an even faster pace. "Agatha!"

"This'll be rough!" Agatha shouted to her companions.

"Aim for the field!" Krosp pointed at the large open stretch of grass.

"I'll Aim for the pond!" Agatha said as she tried to steer the falling airship.

"No, anything but that!" Krosp snapped as he wrestled the helm away from Agatha.

"What're you-?!" She tried to stop the crazy cat but was interrupted as Burke put his arms around both of his companions.

"HANG ON TO ME!" Burke shouted as he grabbed the two of them and leapt from the crashing contraption. Burke's HUD lit up red at the weight capacity limit for his jump kit, but he ignored the warning as he focused on protecting his two companions. The trio landed with a thud as Burke's boots cracked the ground and made a small pit. Burke growled in pain as his knees buckled from the drop and excess weight from his partners. Agatha and Krosp were unceremoniously dropped from Burke's grip and rolled briefly but the two of them remained unharmed.

"Thomas are you alright?!" Agatha said as she stood up and with a slight stumble before leaning on Burke for support. She then regained her footing and promptly dusted herself off.

"My joints and bones ache, *hiss* …but I'll live." Burke said as he stood up from the dirt and tried to walk off the impact.

"Good…. Now, are you insane?! What were you thinking?!" The orange haired spark snapped at the pilot.

"In that order, no, and I was focused on helping you and the cat, we did have a deal about helping each other after all!" Burke retorted and then pointed to the wrecked flying machine. "I certainly know it would've been a damn sight worse if I hadn't done that!"

"That doesn't mean you should just jump out of a crashing airship!" Agatha shot back.

"What does it matter, we're alive aren't we?! I'm the one with aches and pains!" Burke roared.

"He does have a point you know, he shielded us from the impact and getting wet in the lake." Krosp interjected.

"Yeah but that's not an excuse!" Agatha ranted.

"If it happens again, I'll warn you. So please can we just move on from this? After all, we have a power mad maniac chasing us, don't we?" The exasperated pilot tried to compromise with his ally for the time being and move on.

"*sigh* Fine, let's look around and see if we can salvage anything from the crash." Agatha said in a more agreeable tone as she began to sift through the wreckage.

"Agreed." Burke said firmly. With the argument over they began scavenging the wreck, and Krosp found a weapons locker that held an energy cannon inside. Agatha got to work tinkering with it and then with the weapon modified, she fired it at a nearby boulder. The rock was blown to bits from the blast, leaving Agatha grinning and Burke and Krosp making mental notes to stay on her good side while she held on to the tool of destruction. Krosp went about the task of covering up the wreck with any available foliage he could grab, taking more than a generous amount of help from Burke. Once that was done, the group went on their way, leaving the wrecked airship behind as they headed into the wild. The group soon debated about their supplies with Krosp flaunting his supposed natural hunting instincts, which Burke doubted the cat had.

After the morning's events no one had really said much as they had all focused on either hunting for food or finding a spot to rest for various reasons. Hours later, the group eventually made camp for the night in a comfortable clearing after a long day of walking in the woods. Burke sharpened his knife with a flat rock he'd found, taking great care to avoid cutting himself. Krosp was busy brooding that he hadn't managed to catch anything, but he hadn't said anything about it yet. The camp was silent except for the sounds crackling of the fire and Burke's combat knife being scraped against the rock while Agatha cooked a sausage in the fire.

She was a bit uncomfortable with the lack of talk, so she decided to be the first one to speak and offered a sausage to Krosp. When the cat did so, Burke chuckled slightly at the irony of the intelligent cat's situation. Krosp retorted to that with the fact that Burke had not been too helpful in that regard. Agatha suggested looking for a local farm for shelter, but both of her companions pointed out the folly of her idea. No one owed them, so they'd have no sanctuary from any settlers when the baron would come looking for them. They agreed to deal with the problem later as they had enough supplies to do so. Agatha then decided it was time she found out some more about her mysterious friend though.

"So, Burke, there's a few things I want to ask you Burke." Agatha said as looked straight at the pilot.

"Such as?" Burke replied.

"You said you're Irish so what's Ireland like?" She asked innocently.

"Never been there myself to tell the truth, my family is Irish, but I've just never seen it." Burke answered truthfully.

"So, you're from England then?" Agatha asked.

"Err, no. Let's just say that I'm not really from anywhere you'd know." Burke said evasively.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Agatha pried suspiciously.

"I would like to know as well just where you came. I haven't forgotten that militia you mentioned." Krosp said with his arms crossed.

"Fine, I'm not good at secrets anyway. Would you either of you believe me if I told you the truth though?" Burke sighed in defeat, he knew it was better to explain things rather than lie like an idiot and let it fester for later.

"Let's hear what you have to say then we'll decide. I'd say that's fair enough." Agahta said coolly.

"Alright then, three things. First, I'm from another planet-" Burke answered but was interrupted.

"WHAT?!" She shouted hysterically.

"LET ME FINISH!" Burke roared.

"…" She remained silent in shock.

"Good. Now secondly, I'm from the future. Lastly, I also came from another dimension. Now you can freak out and ask questions as much as you want." Burke continued his explanation.

"What's the future like? Oh there are so many possibilities all the advancements, the inventions! You have to tell me everything!" Agatha exploded with questions.

"Woah slow down there! Yes, I am but this world is a lot different from the Earth I know in my universe's history!" Burke tried to calm her down.

"What do you mean?" She tilted her in curiosity.

"I mean a lot of things here are just wrong, like that laser gun of yours. Those don't exist in my world, at least not like that unless you count thunderbolt launchers. Flying machines, well those seem out of place from the history I was taught. I know that baron guy isn't in it either and neither are those robots of his." Burke retorted.

"We have quite a bit to discuss then." Agatha said, taking in the facts.

"We do, but let's do it later. You need sleep, and I need to think." Burke said firmly.

With the discussion over for the night Agatha and Krosp went to sleep while Burke would stay up for a few hours and keep watch. Alone with his thoughts, the militia pilot wondered to himself about when he'd be located by doctor Valhen and return home from this strange dimension. He missed his partner, and he missed his own team of misfits that he'd been separated from for his punishment. The team was probably doing fine under the titan wars veteran Major Livingston, Burke knew he could trust the British medic to run things in his place. Lieutenant Marshall was probably driving him up the wall though with how much of a rowdy wise-cracker he could be, not to mention the cowpoke gunslinger did tend to disobey orders. He also hadn't forgotten Agent Tanaka, the very same simulacrum who'd been sent to keep an eye his team and reported his 'incident' to high command. While he was highly secretive and had ratted out his fellow soldier even for doing what was right, Burke couldn't deny the mutual respect he shared with the cybernetic samurai despite Tanaka's strict code.

It all seemed so far away now, his life, his team, his duty, he had to hope that the good doctor could pull him back, or at least send his partner VX through for support. He wondered to himself just what he should do, he was trained in survival tactics, but like he told the cat, he was no professional hunter. After a moment of thought on the matter, Burke went out into the woods to ty and hunt after he set his HUD to mark the location on its compass. In his own opinion, the next few hours of trial and error would be interesting to say the least.

-THE NEXT MORNING: SHORTLY BEFORE SUNRISE-

Krosp the intelligent cat stretched languidly as he woke from a deep and relaxing cat nap. He glanced at the orange haired spark to see that she was still sound asleep next the campfire that had died a few hours ago. The cat then looked around the campsite to figure out where burke had gone, seeing as he was no longer laying sitting upon the log where he had been sharpening his knife. Suddenly here was a rustle in the bushes and Krosp made a frantic grab for Agatha's energy cannon. With a tremendous effort for his stature, he hefted weapon onto a log and positioned it to fire at the bushes just as Burke stepped through.

'ZAPP!' The weapon discharged through the trees and into the sky as Burke had just barely managed to avoid getting his head blown off by the destructive beam.

"What the bloody heck was that for?! You could've killed me hairball!" Burke hissed at the bidpedal furball.

"What were you doing out there?! You were supposed to be keeping watch!" Krosp retorted as he stepped away from the cannon.

"I decided to be a good Samaritan is what I did, and this is the thanks I get! Here, fresh meat!" Burke growled bitterly at the cat and threw down a dear's corpse.

"And you said you were not a hunter." Krosp crossed his arms smugly

"I said I wasn't an outdoorsman." Burke crossed his arms as Krosp looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Don't get snippy with me my feline friend, just enjoy that I brought a meal back." The future solider pointed his finger at the cat and then at the dead creature.

"Fine, now… how do we cook this?" Krosp rolled his eyes and then rubbed his whiskered face in thought.

"…I thought you knew that." Burke slumped his shoulders and facepalmed.

-LATER-

Agatha stirred from her slumber to the rousing smell of roasting meat over a fire. "Morning sleeping beauty." Burke said casually as he held up a crudely cut slab of meat with his knife over the fire.

"Burke, where did you get this?" Agatha said in surprise as she gazed upon the meat Burke had gathered.

"A long night of hunting, trial, and error, with a heavy dose of beginner's luck near the end, with barely any sleep I might add." Burke replied with slight yawn as he turned the knife to cook the meat evenly.

"Riiiight." Agatha put her hands on her hips.

"If you want to be skeptical that's on you. Either way, this is turning out to be a fine roast. Of course, it took an hour or two to figure it out." Burke shrugged as he admired his handiwork.

"Ugh, what's that other smell?" She pinched her nose as the smell of nearby decay became evident in the air.

"Where I got the meat from, and probably the meat I burned as well." Burke said coolly.

"Oh, right… Hey where's Krosp?" Agatha said as she noticed the lack of the cat's presence and then glanced at Burke's knife.

"Rrrooww! My own breakfast! Yeah caught by me!" Krosp shouted as he held a squirming mouse in his paws.

"That answer your question?" Burke deadpanned and then looked to the cat. "Well you certainly proved you can hunt cat… mice anyway. But you're no king of the beasts." He said in a snarky tone.

"Says the one who burned more than he cooked, you should learn to eat it raw!" The self-proclaimed cat king retorted.

"Uh no. If humans eat raw meat, we get sick." The soldier deadpanned again.

"Wait how much did you burn?" Agatha ignored that and inquired about the meat.

"Why does that matter Agatha?" Burke said as he turned his head to face her.

"I want to know." She said firmly.

"A lot. Here, enjoy it. Hopefully it's not too crispy." Burke replied bluntly and handed the girl a piece of well-cooked meat. She took the piece in her and then bit down on it, her face lighting up as she savored the taste of roasted deer meat.

-ENDCHAPTER-


	7. The Circus

The Frontier Spark

Episode 7: The Circus

-EURPOEAN WILDERNESS-

"This is delicious!" Agatha exclaimed joyfully as she tasted the venison Burke had successfully cooked. The pilot himself smirked under his visor as Agatha took her time enjoying the fruits of his labor. "My compliments to the chef." The girl complimented her comrade after she finished the food.

"Well thanks." Burke said with his ego growing ever slightly. "Now let's get moving again, we haven't got all day."

"I couldn't agree more." Agatha said with a content smile on her face.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go." Krosp said dismissively as chomped on the mouse he'd caught.

On that note, the three travelers began moving again along the trails through the forest that seemed to stretch on as far as the eye could see. Burke listened to the sight and sounds of nature as the group walked on. He couldn't help admiring the beauty of the land around him, despite the unknown threats that lurked deeper within the woods and beyond them in this alternate universe. But the pilot was roused from his inner thoughts when he heard the sound of someone sobbing in a nearby tree, a child from the tone of the sobbing.

"Did you two hear that?" Burke said as he looked to Agatha and Krosp.

"I did." Agatha replied.

"Yes." The talking cat answered.

The three of them then look over to a nearby tree and see a young boy sitting on a branch, all alone and crying. The young child's hair was blonde, he carried a leather satchel, wore a tan jacket, brown pants, and a red hat.

"Are you alright up there, kid?!" Burke shouted to the scared child.

"Aah!" The child jumped slightly in surprise.

"Relax we're not going to hurt you." Agatha said in an attempt to calm the boy down. "Where are your parents?"

"I… I don't know! I was playing and now I can't find my way back!"

"Really, well our search for provisions might be over." Krosp thought with a devious smile. At that second an extremely irked Burke thumped the cat on the head with his fist. The force of the hit knocked the feline to the ground and caused him to see stars.

"Listen pussy cat, I catch you thinking like that about anyone again, including the kid, I'll pulverize you, punch you into fuzz, I'll pound you to pieces!" Burke lifted up Krosp by the scruff of his neck and snapped at the intelligent cat. "That's what I'll do next time, pound you to pieces, just like that!"

"Both of you stop it! We're supposed to be the good guys, remember?!" Agatha snapped at the two feuding allies, although inwardly she smirked at Burke's punishing Krosp.

"He started it!" The cat and pilot shouted as they pointed at each other.

"Hey I didn't know you were show people!" The little kid shouted.

"Show people?" Burke and Agatha looked at each other.

"Yeah, those are great slapstick and talking cat acts!" The little boy said with a big smile on his face. "Hit him again mister!"

"I like the way you think kid!" The pilot grinned.

"Hey!" Krosp snapped.

"Are your parents show people?" Agatha asked the child.

"Yep, master Payne's circus of adventure, tell your friends!" The kid said happily.

"So, you don't live around here?" The heterodyne heir tilted her head in confusion.

"Nope, just passing through like cheap beer!" The little boy joked.

"You've got a good sense of humor!" Burke grinned.

"Burke!" Agatha snapped.

"What? It's how my Da raised me." The pilot shrugged, unaware of his wrongdoing in Agatha's opinion.

"He let you drink?!" The heterodyne heir gasped.

"No! My old man just taught me how to get those kinds of jokes! And whiskey… or some other form of alcohol, for him on occasion." Burke retorted defensively and trailed off sheepishly.

"Sounds like a great dad." Agatha remarked sarcastically.

"Oi, my old man is a great guy, he saves on a daily basis!" The pilot defended his father.

"Doing what?" Agatha inquired.

"He uses 'heavy equipment' to help put out fires, in short, he's a firefighter." Burke shot back with a smug grin.

"Is that right?" Agatha threw him a skeptical look.

"Yes, it is. Anyway, let's stop arguing and focus on the wee lad here." Burke ended the argument by shifting the conversation towards the little boy. "He needs our help getting back to his Ma and Da, right boyo?"

"Mmmhmm. You can meet my dad when you help take me home!" The young boy replied happily.

"Um, we'll try." Agatha said with a lack of confidence.

"I smell campfires, and horses, and people." Krosp said coolly as he pointed further along the trail. "Over that way, kid."

"Ok, let's get you back to your folks." Agatha said warmly to the boy with a smile on her face.

"Huzzah!" The little boy said with glee.

"Hey! No people remember?!" Krosp hissed.

"We're not going to send him by himself." Agatha hushed the cat.

"Why not?! He got here by himself!" Krosp griped.

"I'd listen to the lady, furball." The pilot rolled up his sleeve, revealing a muscular arm as a show of force.

"That is the greatest cat ever!" The boy beamed happily as he followed the wandering group of misfits. After that event, the group moved through the woods at a comfy pace to reach the campsite, with Krosp leading the way. The cat wasn't one to shy away from being smug about his natural advantages over his human comrades. Burke rolled his eyes at that while Agatha shook her head at the feud between them mimicking that of a dog and a cat. They eventually reached the campsite after a short walk through the forest, revealing a clearing filled with strange old-timey contraptions, wagons, and house like structures. The pilot tilted his head at just how odd it all looked, but he quickly stood up straight again. In his mind it was just another odd thing about the timeline that didn't make sense, and he'd have to accept it. He then took off his helmet for a brief moment so as to avoid anyone being suspicious of him, just in case.

"This must be it." Agatha said as she observed the camp while Burke stayed silent.

"Yeah, that's our wagon!" The child shouted and pointed to a single wagon out of the bunch of other wagons and odd contraptions.

Not even a moment sooner, a woman with brown hair and dressed in a red robe, the young boy's mother it seemed, spotted the group and rushed towards them. "Balthazar!" She shouted in relief at the sight of her missing child.

"Mama, I got lost!" Balthazar yelled in reply as he rushed to hug his mother.

"He's yours then, good." Agatha said coolly.

"Yes, thank you! I was so worried!" The eager mother said gratefully.

"Your welcome, ma'am. It was no trouble helping the lad get home." Burke said with a bit of Irish charm in his voice.

"We found him sitting in a tree. I'm Agatha Clay, this my friend Thomas Burke." Agatha gave her an idea of Balthazar's last location and then gestured to herself and the pilot beside her.

"Trish Belloptrix!" The grateful mother replied as she held her son.

"They're nice Mama! They're show people!" Balthazar said as he pointed to the group of misfits.

"Show people?" Trish cocked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, they've got a great talking cat and comedy act." Balthazar explained.

"Cat act?" Trish tilted her head in confusion as she looked down at her son.

"Hey, how's it going?" Krosp said to the woman.

"That's your act, is it?" The cat said casually.

"Err… he called it an act not me." Agatha said as the cat made a fool of himself by singing and dancing earning a few snickers from Burke.

"Hold on there a second, I guess you could say if I wanted to, I could be a genuine acrobat." The pilot said smugly as he boasted of his skills, which wasn't too far from the truth.

"Is that so? Well anyway the cat's cute, I bet the townies must love him." Trish said with a smirk. "Why don't you all come with me? We were about to have breakfast when I missed Balthazar." She offered.

"We don't want to be a bother-" Agatha started to say.

"C'mon Agatha, it'd be rude to refuse." Burke interrupted his orange haired associate. "Thank you for your hospitality ma'am, we'd be glad have a meal with ya."

"Your welcome, a meal is the least I could do." Trish replied.

"Food, yeah food is always good, and at least somebody realizes I'm cute." Krosp said coolly with a subtle jab at his comrades, which Burke flat out ignored.

"Where's the rest of your party?" Trish asked curiously.

"Um, it's just us." Agatha answered.

"You've all been walking the wastelands alone?" Trish said in astonishment.

"We were in an airship but it crashed, and I have Thomas to help out." Agatha explained and pointed to her friend.

"So, you're both some kind of adventurers. Why then it must be luck that brought you here." Trish said with a smile.

"…That's one way of looking at it, ma'am." Burke said as he twiddled his thumbs.

"Enough with that, just call me Trish." Trish scolded the young man.

"You got it, Trish. It's just that my old man and my mother taught me to be a respectful gentleman." Burke replied with a salute and, avoiding his military training/experience, explained his reason for the formality around civilians, which was a half-truth.

"Then you have good parents." Trish remarked.

"Eh, it was something of a hit and miss to be honest. Anyway, maybe it was luck that got us here, or probably something else entirely." Burke scratched his head.

"Yes! For here you will find the greatest dissemblance of heroes in all of Europe!"

"What?" Krosp asked suspiciously.

"That's assemblage dear." The mother corrected her child.

"Right." Balthazar replied.

"It's a traveling heterodyne show." Agatha surmised.

"A what?" Burke tilted his head in confusion.

"Heterodyne?!" Krosp hissed in worry.

"Sure it's… Oh my." Agatha started to say but her mood dropped like a stone in water as she realized the implications of the situation.

"Am I missing something here besides… the obvious from what you said? It's a show about certain people famous people, that erm well…" Burke said in a hushed tone as he and the group chatted amongst themselves for a brief moment only to be interrupted by the arrival of another member of the traveling show.

"This is miss Agatha Clay, and mister Thomas Burke. Both of you, this is Abner, master Payne's assistant." Trish introduced them to the ringmaster's assistant.

"Where did they come from?" Abner asked curiously.

"They brought Balthazar back." Trish explained.

"Ah." Abner replied.

"We'll figure this out later, whatever the problem is here." Burke hissed to his comrades.

"You know it's a show about-!" Agatha whispered back.

"Yeah, but we should play it cool for now. No one knows the truth, and let's keep it that way as long as we can." The pilot replied.

"Alright, if you say so Thomas." The Heterodyne heir accepted her partner's plan.

"I promised them a meal, but master Payne might let them join up, if only because they're traveling solo." Trish told her colleague.

"Solo?! In the wastelands?!" Abner shouted in surprise.

"It wasn't either of our ideas, our airship crashed." Agatha timidly replied.

"From what I can see, you'll all fit right in around here then." Abner said casually.

"We'll see… Abner, was it?" Burke asked curiously.

"Yeah." The ringmaster's assistant answered.

"The name's Burke, pleasure to meet you, and if you're wondering we we're the only ones on the airship. It was a pretty small one to be honest." Th pilot stuck his hand out and the two of them shook.

"An airship crewed by two and a half? That's a small craft for out here." Abner replied with a concerned look. "Where were you coming from?"

"Is it important?" Burke deflected.

"Could be, I saw a Wulfenbach sigil on that pack you're carrying. I know Castle Wulfenbach is around these parts, folks were talking about it the last town. So, I'm guessing you're off the castle. You work for the Baron?" Abner said suspiciously.

"She did temporarily, and I was… given an offer… but I refused." Burke said half truthfully.

"Is that right?" Abner said skeptically.

"We didn't-" Agatha started to say but Burke stopped her.

"*sigh* Let's tell them the truth Agatha." Burke gave a decisive sigh. "Her parents came around to help us escape, …they didn't make it. One of the Baron's goons…" The pilot explained with a stoic expression.

"...It, it was horrible, we escaped in the confusion, I still can't believe they're dead." Agatha grieved for her deceased caretakers.

"They'll be looking for the two of you." A woman with orange hair and a pinkish dress added. "When did this happen?" She asked Agatha.

"Yesterday, it was only yesterday. I still can't believe-" The heterodyne girl was still in some shock.

"I don't know what to say Agatha, but for what it's worth, I do know they loved you." Burke patted her on the back and gave a comforting look, his actions akin to that of an older brother.

"Thanks Thomas." Agatha said as she looked him in the eye and smiled.

"Hey, don't worry, you know I've got your back." Burke said confidently with a proud look and thumb's up to reassure her.

"You, poor kid, I'm sure-" Abner started to say but the orange haired woman interrupted him.

"Don't you say another word." The woman growled.

"What?" Abner said in confusion.

"It's master Payne's decision, not yours." She said strictly.

"I was just-" Abner was interrupted.

"About to say something stupid!" The woman snarled as she got in his face. "Get master Payne!" she ordered.

"We don't mean any trouble for you folks." Agatha tried to diffuse the situation.

"Don't worry about it, those two have been like that since Pix joined up. I'm Zeetha, here eat up." A green haired girl said as she strolled over to the two of them with food in hand.

"Thanks, I'm Agatha and this is Thomas." Agatha gestured to herself and Burke.

"Call me Burke." The pilot said bluntly.

"You two really escaped from castle Wulfenbach?" The girl now known as Zeetha asked curiously.

"We had had some help and Burke was trying to get out on his own until we ran into each other." Agatha explained.

"*Cough*Agatha…" Burke coughed and elbowed her in attempt to prevent her from sharing something that was a secret.

"Well good, you're tougher than you look and he's probably a decent fighter from what I can see." Zeetha sized coolly, apparently sizing up the two of them.

"I hold my own in a fight." Burke replied bluntly.

"You know my people have a saying…" Zeetha started to say something about her people and Agatha made a connection to them. Zeetha reacted and got in Agatha's face, to which Burke barked at her to back off, and got between them. Zeetha growled at the pilot to step, aside but Burke refused and said in a cold voice that she could ask Agatha anything from where she was standing. The Heterodyne girl tried to diffuse the situation by stating that her uncle had told her stories about Zeetha's homeland Skifander. Zeetha asked through her gritted teeth, about the whereabouts of Agatha's uncle, to which she replied that he'd disappeared years ago. That set Zeetha off, causing her to slice up several objects in a tantrum, nearly cutting Burke until he blocked a strike from her blades with his combat knife and data knife. The warrior girl tried to overpower the pilot, but he was surprisingly strong in comparison to herself. She struggled against Burke and he still held her back, but not without a considerable amount of effort on his part.

Several other people from the caravan came around to see what the commotion was and were surprised to see someone in a fight with Zeetha. Agatha quickly explained to someone who asked her that it was a misunderstanding and something of an accident. Agatha was then informed of Zeetha's origins while still watching the trial of strength between the two warriors. Burke eventually decided to back down and broke free of the struggle, he jumped backwards and flipped in air, drawing lots of attention from onlookers. He landed in a crouch position, panting heavily from his efforts, and ready to go for another round of fighting.

Without missing a beat, the two rushed each other in a blitz of blade clashes. Burke did his best to match her strikes with his knives, but the short weapons weren't exactly meant to counter swords. Zeetha kept him on his toes as she rapidly swiped at where ever he stood as their battle raged on. The pilot slid under her swords and time seemed to slow as he stood back up and landed an uppercut to her jaw. The sheer force behind the swift blow knocked the warrior girl into the air, causing her to flip and land on her belly. Zeetha gritted her teeth and rushed at Burke, who only smiled confidently as he sidestepped her charge and signaled with his fist for her to come at him. She growled and stared him right in eye, both fighters hadn't moved an inch at that point. The stillness of the moment was a clear sign that it had become something akin to a battle between masters, though if Burke was honest about it, he was still an apprentice in CQC.

Agatha was watching Burke in action again and now she was watching him fight even better than before. If she hadn't gotten to know him as well as she had in the past few days, which still wasn't too much, she'd assume he was going all out. But in truth there were signs that he was holding back as it was just a case of self-defense on his part. The heterodyne heir could hear the blades clashing and see their accompanying sparks, but for her eyes it was like watching blurs as the two fighters struck at each other. She watched Burke leap over Zeetha in a display of acrobatic skill he'd bragged about earlier. The crowd was surprised to see such an act performed in that manner and little Balthazar was in awe.

The pilot touched down on the ground and then rushed at Zeetha in a charge of his own. The warrior attempted to anticipate him but was surprised to see him stop short and stand on one hand. He then spun and tried to kick her but she reacted swiftly enough, managing to block his powerful kick with her arm. She used that momentary halt and grabbed Burke by his leg making the pilot go wide eyed as she did so. Without thinking, she had swung him around and flung him towards a nearby wagon. Once he was in the air, she then took on a look of irritation and slapped herself as she had thrown him in the wrong direction. The pilot breathed and felt time slow again, he then took in the situation, and with a quick burst from his jump kit, positioned himself to land. Instead of shattering the wagon to pieces, and to everyone's surprise, Burke had landed and started running along the wall before jumping off. He skidded to a stop and was covered in dust from his brief slide across the soil.

"That… was… awesome!" Balthazar shouted with glee and a big smile on his face.

"Is that *huff* all you got?" The pilot said in between breaths as he stood up, covered in dirt and muck.

"What *wheeze* about you? I can keep going, *huff* I am a warrior of skifander!" Zeetha shouted as she looked him straight in the eye, her swords at the ready.

"Then bring it on!" Burke shot back as he got into a fighting stance again, having recovered his stamina.

"That's quite enough fighting!" An authoritative voice shouted, drawing the attention of the crowd and fighters. The voice belonged to an older man in a dark blue robe adorned with a pattern of white stars, he wore a pair of glasses and bore a head of auburn hair as well as a long beard. "Zeetha what is the meaning of this?!"

"Master Payne, oh uh?" Zeetha knew she was in trouble.

"She picked the fight with me, if that's what you're wondering, sir. Just chalk it up to a big misunderstanding." Burke answered for her, standing down and stretching since it was clear Zeetha was in trouble and he would wear out his group's welcome if he continued.

"Is that true?" The older man asked as he looked in Zeetha's direction.

"Well…" The warrior girl trailed off with a guilty look. As the discussion began and explanations were made, Pix and Agatha left the area for a brief few minutes. The actress knew it would take a few minutes before everyone would have a level head to talk. Some of the show members had gone back to their packing and other chores as things settled down. Back with the two fighters and the ringmaster, Burke was still sour with Zeetha and she felt the same about him. Payne inquired about the cause of the fight but Burke refused to say much until his friend came back around as it wouldn't be the full story unless she was there to shed some more light. Eventually Agatha and Pix returned after having enjoyed a nice chat, as well as Agatha helping fix a problem, and the whole incident was resolved. After that the two, three counting Krosp, of them explained their story except for bits that Burke and Agatha would rather not share.

"…And that's the long and short of it." Burke said stoically to the ringmaster.

"Zeetha's actions aside, and your friend has done us a favor as well it seems, but I'm afraid neither of you can travel with us." Master Payne said with an unhappy tone. "You both are on the run from castle Wulfenbach, ordinary townsfolk would be punished simply for aiding either of you, and we have concerns of our own. We don't want any trouble from the baron. Mister Burke, Miss Clay, the best we can do is to forget we ever saw you and wish you both good luck."

"*Sigh*I figured as much sir." Burke sighed and turned to his friend. "C'mon Agatha, Cat, we've got a long road ahead of us."

"That's for sure, we'd best leave right away then. Goodbye Pix, Abner, I wish- never mind." Agatha said in a determined and slightly dejected tone as she turned and followed Burke and Krosp down the trail once more. The both of them didn't look back, but they did hear several voices arguing, Pix's being the loudest.

-SEVERAL MINUTES LATER-

Even with the pleasant ambience of the majestic European woods surrounding the trio of weary travelers an air of sadness hung over one of them. The group had walked in a depressing silence for some time, Agatha feeling the worst. Burke wasn't exactly sure what to say to her about what happened but he knew he had no taste for a dour mood. Krosp decided it was up to him to break the silence since it was clear that neither of his companions were going to speak up.

"Well that could have gone better." Krosp said to no one in particular.

"Oh ya think?" Burke remarked sarcastically as he briefly inspected his rifle while they walked on. "But then again we should have expected that."

"And why is that?" Agatha inquired.

"The cat said it himself, and I think you know it too." Burke replied.

"People take care of their own." Agatha surmised.

"Exactly, but hey, at least we've got each other." The pilot said in an attempt at camaraderie.

"You won't be around forever Thomas." Agatha said dejectedly.

"…True, I've got a life to get back to in the future on my home planet. But if you want, maybe you could come with me for a little bit." The pilot tried to cheer up his friend.

"To the future?!" Agatha perked up like it was Christmas.

"I won't promise anything since it'd be up to my superiors-" Burke stuck up a finger.

"You mean it?!" Agatha rushed over to him with a smile.

"Like I said, no promises but I'll see what I can do." Burke shrugged nervously.

"Thank you!" Agatha hugged him.

"Hey that's what friends are for right?" Burke said sheepishly.

*RHHHHEE*

"What in the-?!" The pilot turned his head to where the screech had come from.

"They're in trouble!" Agatha shouted in dismay.

"Now that's not good." Krosp said as he watched the carnage.

"Understatement of the year my feline friend." Burke growled as he clenched his fist angrily.

"Don't they have any defenses? They're scattering like geese!" Krosp hissed.

"I'm going down there." The future soldier said with a determined look in his eye.

"What?" Agatha asked in confusion.

"I said I'm going down there." Burke clarified.

"What are you going to do?" Krosp asked the pilot.

"What I was trained to do, I am a soldier after all. Stay safe you two." Burke said as he slapped on his helmet and gave his friends a two finger salute. The pilot then jumped down from the cliff with his kit active to cushion the fall. He then ran towards the giant crab-machine, firing his rifle to get its attention. "Hey ugly!" Burke yelled at the menacing clank as he fired at its laser eye. The beast of a machine turned its attention towards him and fired a beam that managed to dodge. The pilot leapt over the massive clank's claw as it attempted to crush him like a bug. With his teeth gritted in concentration, Burke grappled onto the monstrous machine's hull and held on while tried to throw him off. With a rapid swipe the clank threw its claw over its back to swat the pilot off. Burke ducked under it and fired his rifle into rusted open holes the dotted the crab clank's hull in an attempt to hit a weak spot. The rounds ricocheted inside the metal beast but didn't have much of an effect as it continued to rampage through the camp. Burke tossed a grenade into another open hole, quickly jumping off as it detonated and blew a hole in the clank's back.

The clank seemed to be angered as it shot another beam at the pilot who grappled away to a nearby tree. Burke leapt rapidly from branch to branch in his efforts to avoid being vaporized by the clank's laser. He cursed under his breath that he hadn't brought an archer rocket when he traveled to this dimension. The crab clank managed to anticipate Burke's next jump and fired a beam that eradicated his next landing spot. The pilot growling in frustration, immediately fired his grapple line, hooking it to the ground. He then used the momentum to sling shot himself at the metal monster and hopefully onto its back again. But the clank had other ideas as it managed to swat Burke with its steel claw and knock him flat onto the ground. The pilot rolled for a brief moment and coughed as he stood back up, it was the first time he'd been hit with that much force. He narrowed his eyes under his visor as the clank's eye glowed in preparation to fry him. He stuck his hand up and made a finger gun, leveling it at the clank's eye.

At that moment a blue beam struck the clank, and Burke smiled as he knew where that came from. He turned his head in her direction and he could see she was mad for him ditching her like that. He knew he owed her one now and just grinned under his visor since he couldn't really complain. Then Burke started to get a static filled signal through his helmet's radio. He slapped the side of his helmet as he figured it was just a malfunction until audible words started to take shape in the hissing. He could hear Agatha yelling at him too, which he figured he deserved, but it was drowned out by the chaos and radio static. "Lieutenant- are- receiving?!" A familiar voice said in broken chatter.

"Doc, is that you?"

"Can- hear me?"

"I read you!"

"Yes, but- broken- *HISS* barely hear-!"

"Doc, I need VX now!"

"Are you in danger?"

"Just send him now!" Burke roared, and just like that the connection was cut. The pilot cursed his luck and struggled to move as he summoned his strength and charge back into the fight. He fired his rifle at the clank again to draw its attention like before. The crab-bot-behemoth fired another laser beam at him, blowing a large crater in the ground beside him as he leapt aside and rolled. He tossed a grenade at it and ran for his life to distract it from killing the innocent civilians of the performing troupe. Another beam of light whizzed by him and sent him flying from the resulting explosion. He cloaked and briefly disappeared, unaware that the civilians were watching his battle with utter astonishment at his seemingly magical ability. Burke reappeared and ran up the clank's arm, tossing an arc grenade at its eye in the process. He then jumped away again and skidded through the dirt and mud with a steely gaze on his face.

Suddenly a bright swirling vortex appeared in the sky and Burke couldn't help but grin as he looked up. Then a melodious simulated voice rang in his ears over the radio. "Pilot, stand by for Titanfall." VX said just before he dropped from the glowing portal high above the forest soil. With a loud boom the titan hit the ground and a bright blue dome shield encapsulated the mighty warmachine of tomorrow. Agatha briefly stood still and stared at the new machine that had appeared from the sky. The crab clank turned to face the machine and fired its laser at the glowing shield dome. What surprised the many onlookers was that the laser blast was deflected by the shield.

Agatha then shouted at Burke. "What is that?!"

"My partner." Burke said coolly and ran toward the new machine. With what appeared to be a flawlessly executed move as they pilot hatch opened up and seated himself inside. "Good to see you again VEX."

"Welcome back pilot." VX said as he equipped the X016 chaingun and aimed it at the crab clank.

-END CHAPTER-


	8. Mean Machines

The Frontier Spark

Episode 8: Mean Machines

A/N: Sorry for the delay folks!

* * *

-CIRCUS CAMPSITE-

"Alright VEX, let's show that hunk of junk how we do things back home." Burke said coolly.

"Affirmative pilot, combat functions at 100%. Status: Combat ready." Vex reported.

The giant crab clank retorted with an unnervingly eerie mechanical screeching sound, almost like a challenging roar. A moment later the monstrous machine pounded its claw onto the ground, then repeatedly opened and shut it. Burke charged forward with VX and let loose a burst of armor-piercing X016 rounds in the crab clank's direction. He knew he had to avoid taking direct hits from the crab clank's laser eye and concentrating on the eye with his gunfire seemed to be the best strategy for the moment. The bang of every single chain-gun round was akin to miniature thunder claps as the performers watched in awe.

The titan aimed it gun directly into the laser eye, hoping it was a weak point of some kind. Bullet after bullet pounded against the clank's armor as it attempted to shield its main weapon from the powerful storm of automatic fire. The mechanical monster rushed forward to try striking its opponent with the iron claw but the nimble Vanguard-class titan simply dashed backwards with its thrusters to evade. Burke activated the ordinance launcher and fired a volley of rockets at the crab clank that pounded its hull. Soon enough the chaingun's drum ran empty and the seasoned pilot gritted his teeth as the machine raised its claw and the eye glow a bright green hue. The apparently angry machine warmed up its laser and fired at the Vanguard class titan. Burke reacted quickly and evaded again with the dash jets, narrowly avoiding a destructive zap that decimated a group of trees behind him. The crab clank clattered forward and swung its claw at the titan for a powerful melee assault. Burke instinctively blocked the claw strike with his titan's weapon, causing them to slide backwards slightly. A battle of sheer hydraulic muscle occurred as both of the heavy metal behemoths pushed back and forth.

"Warning: Hydraulic systems at 106% percent capacity. I recommend an immediate change in strategy." VX reported as he struggled against the physical power of the crab clank. "Pilot, my chassis is not rated for this level of force."

"Yeah, yeah, brute force isn't looking so good." Burke agreed with his partner. A thought then popped into the pilot's head, causing him to grin. "Vex, reroute any available power from non-critical systems to the dash boosters and hydraulics!"

"Acknowledged, rerouting power." VX replied as the hydraulic systems began to exceed output safety limits and the dash boosters pushed the mighty war machine forward to win the battle of might. The crab clank's arm groaned as it began to slowly move backwards in response to the being outpowered. VX's warning system blared as the hydraulic system began to overload from the extensive overtaxing that went borderline to a system overload. With a final blast from the thrusters Burke forced back the crab clank and landed a mighty punch with VX's fist to the clank's eye. Soon enough the pilot had wrestled his weapon free and began firing it at point blank onto the crab clank. The rounds began to penetrate the metal beast's thick armor but it was still far from defeated. In a swift change of tactics, the clank rushed forward again in attempt to mow over the bipedal titan, causing the vanguard to fall backwards onto the mud. Burke struggled to get the clank off of his titan, but it proved to be at an advantage by that point. He fired the boosters to roll VX away from the crab clank's legs as the came down in attempt to skewer the titan. As Burke attempted to stand back up the clank swung its claw directly at VX, knocking the titan backwards again onto the flat muddy ground again.

Seeing her friend in trouble, Agatha fired her blaster cannon again but missed the crab clank. The ancient hunk of junk slammed its claw onto the downed Vanguard, pounding it into the ground. In seconds the crazed machine turned and faced the heterodyne heir with a menacing glow in its eye. On instinct Agatha attempted to avoid the blast from its eye laser but the clank had her zeroed in. Burke was no genius but he knew Agatha was now the clank's main focus. He popped open the hatch and leapt onto the clank's back. The pilot desperately parkoured over the machine at his speediest pace in order to prevent his friend from being blown to bits. He saw the machine's eye glow ahead of him and he threw in a burst of heart pounding adrenaline to squeeze out one last ounce of nearly inhuman effort for his next maneuver. Burke felt time slow down as he jumped from the clank's back, firing his grappling hook and latching it to a tree just before the beam erupted from the hulking metal monster's eye. His focus at that almost still moment was on Agatha's face, memorizing all the details he possibly could. The slightly enhanced heart that beat within his chest ached with fear at the thought of being to slow to save her. Suddenly Agatha moved slightly to the side and someone else took her place, even moving her into Burke's reach just as he reached his hand out to hers.

The heterodyne heir felt her heart nearly stop as she looked death in its glowing eye. In her mind it was almost surreal as the beam closed in on her, everything slowing down to a snail's pace. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Burke's approaching figure making its way towards her just ahead of the beam. She reached her hand out in an effort to grab his, but it seemed just too far out of reach from her grasp. At that very second a powerful shove moved her towards Burke, putting her close enough to feel his ungloved fingers wrap tightly around her soft yet slightly calloused hand. She looked into his glowing blue visor and her heart seemed to skip a beat as it gazed straight into her own green eyes, the view even making her cheeks blush red. Time speed up again gradually as she felt herself get lifted off of the ground and into the air by Burke. With a mighty heave the pilot swung his friend along with him to the safety of a sturdy tree branch. The position Agatha found herself in made her feel a mix of emotions as Burke set her on the branch. Her blush was burning fiercely as she took a moment to think about what happened.

Meanwhile, VX had risen form the dirt and sprinted over to the clank's back legs. The war machine of tomorrow holstered the X016 and grabbed a desperate hold of the beastly machine's rearmost appendages. The clank jerked as it was suddenly pulled backwards and fired its next beam discharge into the sky like an extremely powerful signal flare. It bucked and groaned as the titan wrestled for control once again, though this time the machine from the future was unassisted by its pilot. A short tug of war began as the two engines of destruction struggled against one another. VX turned the tables and pushed forward to knock the crab clank onto its back for a change.

The titan then began pounding into the crab clank's underbelly repeatedly, mashing his metal fist against a visible weakness as the clank thrashed around like a wild animal. VX detected his pilot closing in again and a free hand out as the future soldier soared towards him. Burke was then flung back into his titan's seat and continued with the beatdown on the crab clank. After another minute or two or smacking against a crack in the clank's under armor the shell gave way and Burke didn't hesitate to activate the acolyte pods, firing them into the heart of the crab clank. The monstrous machine spasmed and sputtered as it began to finally collapse internally from the repeated explosions within it. With one last large bang the clank dropped it limbs to the ground and the eye dimmed until the light within it vanished, signaling its destruction.

"Pilot, I can confirm the hostile unit's functions have completely ceased as my scans detect no further heat from within its chassis, the battle is over." VX reported to his pilot.

"Whew, you said it partner." Burke breathed heavily under his visor as he relaxed and let his thoughts return to normal. He looked over to Agatha who was now safely on the ground, and looking straight at the titan with an unpleasant expression on her face. Burke, now faced with another new dilemma, acknowledged the fact that he had more explaining to do and then some. The pilot sighed to himself and disembarked from VX, removing his helmet shortly after, afraid of the coming headache that was about hit him.

"Burke… don't you ever run off like that again!" Agatha snapped at the pilot.

"Heh, sorry about that. But I had to-" He weakly defended his actions but was interrupted.

"You idiot!" The heterodyne heir berated him.

"Yeah I'm an idiot." He conceded before being unexpectedly hugged by her again, leaving him dumbstruck with a face redder than a tomato.

"Thank you for saving my life." Agatha said as she broke off the hug.

"Err, well I eh… your welcome. You saved me so I'd say we're even." Burke babbled in a nervous tone.

"Now, what is that!" She pointed at the hulking Vanguard Class Titan standing idle nearby.

Burke snapped out of his bashful state and looked to his partner with a nod. "Oh right!" The pilot took a breath and grinned." Agatha Clay, I should introduce you to my partner." He gestured to the massive Vanguard-class titan whom he shared a battle forged bond with.

"Greetings Miss Clay, I am titan model VX-1887." The titan greeted the Heterodyne heir as he looked down on her from above.

"This is absolutely amazing! I just have to know, is he a clank from your time?!" Agatha exclaimed with wonder in her eyes at the sight of the mighty metal behemoth from the future.

"I am a Vanguard-class Titan, constructed and designed by the Frontier Militia for frontline combat." VX replied honestly to Agatha's inquiry of his origins.

"What's a Titan?" Agatha asked with a curious look on her face as she looked to Burke for an answer.

"I'll tell you later, right now we have some other matters to deal with, like them and… "He trailed off as he looked to the crowd of performers and then a smoldering corpse where Agatha was nearly vaporized. "…who died to help me help you."

-LATER-

The group was eventually bombarded with questions by the members of the circus troupe. Burke remained reluctant to share too much information about VX despite some insistence from the more mechanically experienced members. Eventually Master Payne put an end to that line of questions as part of his thanks to Burke and Agatha. The pilot was certainly grateful at that due to the fact that he couldn't share any details of extremely advanced technology he'd brought with him. When all thanks had ended, the troupe members took care of the corpse of their fallen friend. It bothered Burke to an extent but that was something he understood that he couldn't have prevented. In the end all he and Agatha had done was minimize the overall casualties of the clank's attack. After the burial, Burke focused on another problem what he was going to do now that VX was here in this strange world. Agatha proposed an idea to disguise VX as something else but Burke refused, citing the fact that he was simply too bulky for that strategy. This left the pilot in a precarious position as he couldn't just send VX back home and since a disguise wasn't viable it left Burke with a choice that made him somewhat frustrated, going off alone into the strange world. His friend Agatha was not exactly happy when he put the idea forward but what other choice did, they have?

Burke was shaken from his thought as a familiar droning hummed in the air. He turned his attention skyward to see Castle Wulfenbach and the rest of the air fleet it traveled with. The militia pilot steeled his nerves as he watched a smaller vessel touch down and who stepped were none other than the Baron, his goons, and Gilgamesh. He pulled a Kraber rifle out of VX's cockpit to get a closer view of the situation, he zoomed in the scope and then tuned his radio to a transmitter he'd left with Agatha. Burke tensed his finger on the high caliber rifle's trigger as he watched Dupree manhandle Abner with reckless abandon.

"Pilot, your heartrate has increased and your pulse is elevated." VX reported his pilot's medical status, not that the pilot cared about that.

"I'm fine VEX." Burke replied curtly with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"My tactical assessment of our situation only confirms that we would be at a terrible disadvantage if we were to intervene." VX added in an attempt to keep his pilot from making any unnecessarily hasty decisions. For a short moment Burke didn't reply, as his attention was fixated on the Baron and his goons harassing the circus folks and citizens.

Burke eventually acknowledged his titan's words and replied with a sigh. "I know partner, I just hate watching this happen."

"We will link up with Agatha and the circus troupe at a later time, my calculations predict she will be fine, trust me." VX said encouragingly to his troubled partner.

"You're right buddy, It's out of my hands and I just have to keep faith. She can take care of herself after all." Burke agreed with a confident smirk under his helmet's mask. "Just hope we covered out racks good enough."

"Affirmative pilot. We have done the best we can, I am 75% positive we will not be followed." VX stated to his pilot confidently.

"And the other 25%?" Burke asked curiously with a raised eyebrow.

"… We will be discovered and either escape or be captured by hostile forces. The former possibility being 16 percent, and the latter being 9 percent." The titan said truthfully with no lack of honesty whatsoever in his words.

"Yep, I figured that much." Burke shook his head. He then watched as the group made their way back to the sight of the battle and the events played to wher the Baron and his forces eventually took the body that had been buried, believing it was Agatha's corpse and Dupree had been orderd to try and find the source of the tracks from the mystery clank that had defeated the crab calnck. Gilgamesh had tears in his eyes and a newfound disdain for the rival that he believed had abandoned or failed to protect her, the young heir had no idea how wrong he was.

-END CHAPTER-


	9. Ode To Nonsense

The Frontier Spark

Episode 9: Ode to nonsense

A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long and is lackluster, I have been suffering from massive writer's block for months and extremely difficult problems at home. This is all I can do for now.

* * *

Burke and VX had followed the caravan closely until they reached the location where the troupe had stopped for the night. When the two of them had finally seen the caravan halt in another clearing the, pilot and titan approached the site. Both of them stopped short of entering the clearing and Burke hopped out, ordering VX to wait amongst the foliage and remain out of sight. The pilot then sat down in the brush and started a campfire of his own, and listened to the sounds of nature during the night. Burke the laid himself on the ground beside his titan and began to sleep for the remainder of that long night.

-THE NEXT DAY-

The sun shone brightly in the skies above the picturesque forest, it's bright light bathing a certain clearing in golden light. Beneath the morning sunlight, the tired pilot stretched himself out and yawned as he woke himself from his well-deserved rest. He stood up and twisted himself around with an audible pop in his back, resulting in a relaxed sigh. Burke shifted his gaze to his vanguard class titan that stood idle nearby.

"Good morning Pilot." The pilot's mechanized companion said with a positive, yet still robotic tone. "The sun's current position marks the time of day as approximately 0630 hours Zulu time."

"Heh, morning VEX. I'm going to head over to the campsite and see how Agatha's doing. Have a seat and park here for a while, if you understand what I really mean by that." Burke chuckled to the advanced technological golem.

"Command acknowledged, activating guard mode." VX replied in an orderly fashion and proceeded to sit down on the ground to conserve energy. Just as Burke began to walk away VX spoke up. "Pilot, I recommend the use of the tactical machete in case of further need for sword combat."

"What Machete? You have large blade hidden in there somewhere that I magically didn't know about?"

"I was equipped with it when my chassis was provided, and you never inquired about the full system and equipment status. To put it simply, you didn't need or ask for it until now."

"That's… actually a good point." Burke raised a finger and took a breath to deliver a counter argument, he immediately stopped himself less than second later to think it over for a brief moment. He lowered his hand and conceded to the Titan's logic on the subject, telling himself it was better not to argue with a machine. He walked back over to the titan and removed the large blade from a hidden compartment that sprung open in the cockpit. He whistled at the fine craftsmanship of the weapon as he unsheathed it and held it in his hands, taking careful note of the serrated edge along the blade's top and the razor-sharp cutting edge on the curved side of the weapon. Once his appraisal of the blade was done, he re-sheathed the blade and clipped the sheath to the back of his right shoulder. After that, the pilot stretched his legs and strolled over to the nearby area where the circus troupe had parked their wagons.

It was nice for the pilot to see the small encampment bustle like that of a very small town on the frontier. The performers were engaging in their daily routines and a few of them even waved hello to him as he made his way to where he believed Agatha was staying. He had a wild hunch it was likely with a certain someone who sported a strangely natural shade of green in her hair. A loud series of shouts and tired pants caught his attention and he rushed over to the source which confirmed his suspicions. He spotted Agatha being run ragged in what appeared to be training by the fierce female warrior they'd encountered a short time ago. Burke couldn't help back silently giggle at the sight of it and remembered the trials of his advanced pilot course, which included the utterly brutal drill instructors who put the pilots through a miserable experience. "The price of success…" He muttered to himself at the feeling of twisted nostalgia.

"Hello ladies, Top o' the morning to ya both!" Burke shouted to the both of them playfully.

Agatha turned her attention away from her tor-mentor to see Burke strolling towards her. "Hello Thomas!" She greeted him with a renewed vigor in her tone. But barely a second later she received a solid smack on the head from Zeetha.

"Don't take your attention off of me! That could cost you in battle Agatha!" Zeetha scolded her trainee. She then turned her head to the militia pilot and away a dizzied Agatha. "Good morning Burke. I trust you slept well."

"Oh sure, nothing beats laying under the stars in the woods on the open dirt." He replied sarcastically.

"Hmph, and here I thought you were more of a rugged person." Zeetha snorted.

"Ruggedly handsome, yes. Preferential to the rock hard ground, not so much." The pilot answered. "Anyway, you're training Agatha, eh?" He pointed to the irritated orange haired girl who laid on the ground frowning in misery.

"Yes, I am training in the style of my people! But I think it's time I challenged a worthy opponent again for a change."

"Oh here we go." Burke grumbled as prepared to reach for the new blade.

Zeetha looked at the tired Agatha who continued to huff and puff in exhaustion from the intense training session. "Agatha, I'll allow you a short break for now while I spar with Thomas."

'Oh what a relief!' The red-head spark relaxed

"Now let us begin!" Zeetha roared as she dashed at Burke who reacted quickly thanks to his anticipation of her assault, a loud clang sounded as the two of them clashed blades like the day before. "I see you obtained a proper blade!" The warrior woman remarked as she eyed the weapon.

"It's something my partner brought along just… in… case." Burke grunted as he pushed the green haired warrior back.

"Now's a good time to test its strength then, HA!" Zeetha replied and threw a powerful slash at her opponent. Burke parried her attack and followed up with a devastating headbutt. Zeetha shook her head before she kicked in the chest by the pilot. She slid back for several feet and blocked burke's heavy blade right in time to punch him in the stomach. Burke winced in pain from the low blow and bent forward slightly. Zeetha backhanded his helmet and knocked him aside, causing the pilot land on the ground. "Owwww." She hissed and blew on her hand from the hit.

"Thank god for helmets." Burke groaned as he stood back up, then took a deep breath and leapt skyward with his jumpkit. Smirking to himself, he fired his grapple line and swung the blade downward at Zeetha.

Agatha watched the two of them fight with mild interest since she had seen both of them quarrel the day before. It still amazed her how acrobatic the boy from another planet really was and that his advanced technology made it possible. Her thoughts then drifted to the advanced clank he traveled with, or 'Titan' as he preferred to call it. The lumbering war machine had so much mystery to it that she had yet to grasp, space age technology working within it that she never even dreamed of before. She grinned at the very thought of seeing what made it tick, it obviously wasn't steam powered from what she could tell. But that left with the question as to what even powered the 'Titan' in the first place. A devious idea crept into the Heterodyne heir's head, since Burke was busy fighting with Zeetha he surely wouldn't mind her having a little peek at VX's systems.

With a crude plan in mind, Agatha silently tiptoed away from two warriors. Luckily for her, the titan wasn't far from the camp and was sitting conveniently by itself. She didn't know why, but a part of her felt a bit sad to see the machine all by itself, like a dog that had been left alone by its master. The girl approached the Titan until she was standing right next to it, although that didn't mean she wasn't eager to learn more about it than what little Burke had shared with her. Just as she was about to begin tinkering with the machine a familiar robotic voice echoed from the metal behemoth.

"Miss Clay, it is a pleasure to see you again." VX greeted the young spark.

"Eep!" She jumped in surprise at the Titan's greeting.

"I apologize, I did not mean to surprise you." VX said calmly.

"T-that's ok." She told the machine.

"Good. May I inquire as to why you are here? My pilot is currently in the campsite if you wish to speak with him." VX pointed his arm at the camp where feint sounds of blade clashes echoed.

"I just want to see what makes you so advanced, and besides you might need a tune up!" Agatha suggested to the mighty machine.

"Apologies, but you are not an authorized maintenance technician and I have not received confirmation from my pilot to allow you access to my systems." VX refused.

"What about your hydraulics or-?" She tried again but the titan remained firm.

"Without authorization or emergency circumstances I cannot permit you access to my systems, however I can provide with information on non-classified subjects to satisfy any curiosity you may have. Is that acceptable?" VX refused and offered her an alternative to satisfy her curiosity.

"Do'h. Alright fine, I guess I can ask Burke about that later." Agatha begrudgingly accepted the Titan's offer.

"Your vocal pattern suggests that you are unsatisfied. If you still wish to request access authorization I can contact my pilot so you may convey your request." The titan offered her another chance to speak with Burke.

Agatha shuffled a bit. "Er, well…. He's a bit busy so no thanks, I think I'll settle for some answers though."

"Very well, please vocally select a topic to discuss." The titan replied.

-LATER-

Agatha had asked the intelligent war machine several questions about the alternate world that he and Burke had come from. She was very amazed to learn of the extent of human colonized space beyond the planet. The fact that such a vast cosmos was simply waiting to be explored served to fuel her curiosity about that world. When the subject of their arrival came about, VX was quite limited in the amount of available data he could share be it non classified or otherwise. She decided to let that slide since there was still so much about the frontier as she had managed to glean from the well of information that sat beside her. With space covered they eventually reached the topic of technological innovations, and that had stoked the fires of Agatha's curiosity in earnest.

"I know I didn't get that much of an answer before so what really is a titan? I know that's what you are, but since you can't tell me much about yourself since you're the newest, then just tell me about older ones." Agatha

"Acknowledged, Titans were originally designed and manufactured primarily by Hammond Robotics. Originally titans were designed for industrial and agricultural work with the most basic model being the Journeyman class, that specific model is made for civilian use in such roles. The Atlas class chassis that came before it surpasses the journeyman as a heavy duty machine designed for flexibility and a multitude of applications both for civilian and military alike."

"So titans used to be gentle giants? When you say class what do you mean, there's more than one version of Titan, like large clanks?" Agatha asked the machine.

"Yes, the success of the general purpose Atlas chassis spawned two other classes to work alongside side it, the Ogre class and Stryder class. Ogre class titans have a prominent role as emergency response units to due to their proven durability. Their operators respond to a wide variety of calls in that sector, such as vehicle collisions, chemical spills, flooding and general rescue as well as fires." VX explained.

"What about the stryders?" Agatha tilted her head in curiosity at VX's lack of description of the other main class of titan.

"Apologies, but I lack sufficient data on the subject." VX responded.

"Let me guess, classified again, right?" Agatha misunderstood the response.

"Negative, my database is corrupted slightly by the travel between worlds." VX answered.

"Figures." Agatha shrugged.

Burke marched through the bushes and waved to the redhead. "Oi Agatha!"

"H-hey Thomas!" Agatha stuttered as she turned to face the pilot.

"What are ya up to with my Titan?" Burke inquired.

"I was informing miss Clay about the frontier and other non-classified subjects." VX told his partner.

"Nothing wrong with some knowledge." Burke nodded coolly.

"You finished fighting Zeetha?" Agatha asked him.

"She knows how to give a proper workout. Good thing my mentor put me through the ringer!" Burke replied in a relaxed tone.

"That was a milk run for you?!" Agatha asked incredulously.

"Eh more or less when compared to what I do on the Frontier on a daily bases." Burke shrugged in a nonchalant manner.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Agatha giggled with a slight blush when she thought of how Burke had saved her life during the battle against the crab clank.

"You have no idea." Burke sighed. "Anyway, the circus folks told me to come get ya, something about one of their machines needing fixing."

Agatha raised an eyebrow. "Why'd they ask you to find me?"

"I dunno, maybe it's because we've traveled together? Anyway, come on time's wastin." Burke pointed a thumb at the campsite.

"Right. Well it'll be nice to do something today besides train with Zeetha. This morning was terrible for me, that darn cat didn't help." Agatha stood up and stretched.

"You mean Krosp? I'll never understand how furball can talk, and please don't try to explain it." Burke said as he and Agatha began walking to the camp.

"Oh I have no intention of talking about that pompous arrogant little ball of whiskers, I'd sooner wring his neck for a few of the things he's said! I nearly dropped a rock on him for this morning!" The redhead growled as she made a strangling motion with her hands, pretending to the twist the cat's neck.

"I'd believe that!" Burke laughed.

"Still, he did help out back on the airship." Agatha sighed, having recalled Krosp's efforts to assist her, even if it was out of self-interest.

"I can understand you owing him a bit for that." Burke nodded.

"Anyway, I'll stick with the circus to get back to Mechanicsburg." Agatha changed the subject.

"Mechanicsburg, that's where you're from? Strange name for a town." Burke remarked.

"What's that supposed to mean?! It's where I'm from, so what?!" That seemed to strike a nerve with Agatha and the redhead narrowed her eyes at the boy.

"I just said the name was odd! It's kind of on the nose isn't it?!" Burke replied with his voice raised.

"So what if it is?!" Agatha snapped.

"I just said the name was ODD! Jeez!" The pilot threw his arms up in frustration.

"Well look at that, two young ones in love." One of the older women of the troupe teased the youngsters. "Ah a love triangle! A strapping soldier boy, the baron's son, and Agatha Clay!"

The two youngsters then blushed furiously at that. "WE ARE NOT!" They both shouted at the same time.

"You're bickering like Mama and Daddy!" Balthazar giggled as he rode in on a bipedal clank that was carrying some firewood.

"Erk!" Burke and Agatha grunted in a mix of frustration and embarrassment.

"Hi mr Thomas, hi miss Agatha!" The little boy waved at the two embarrassed teens.

"Hey kiddo, ….I'm walking away now." Burke turned to walk away.

"Don't walk away from me!" Agatha snapped at him.

"I just need a minute of peace!" Burke ran off.

"Get Back here Burke!" Agatha attempted to chase after the pilot.

-END CHAPTER-


	10. Strange Times

The Frontier Spark

Episode 10: Strange Times

A/N: Sorry I took so long to get this out but all can say is that this story has been difficult to write. it's hard for me to think up original stuff to happen in this story or coming up with original things for characters to say. If my audience is still here, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to Ronmr, cjboughton, Greatazuredragon, cyberlord4444, TheVoidHunter250, SPRTN544, FanGirl. I'm sorry to all of you for taking this long and the quality dropping, but I've gotten to the more mundane moments, and it's difficult for me to do these parts. It's almost like it hurts. Please forgive me everyone. If you read this author's note **PLEASE REVIEW** and let me know if you are still interested in this story. Please tell if the quality has gone down, I need to know these things and how to get my skills back or improved. **I can't make this story better if I don't know what else I'm doing wrong.**

But, I will say that if no one is going to read this story, then I might just put it on indefinite hiatus or cancel it by the end of the week.

Message me if you want to discuss this and change my mind.

* * *

-A SHORT TIME LATER-

Burke and Agatha had argued with each other over what Burke considered to be trivial matters until they eventually grew tired of the constant back and forth. It was difficult enough situation to make the young militia officer feel tired from doling out a streak of comebacks. Agatha won the insult competition, which had made Burke decided to remain silent for several minutes to center his thoughts on something more productive. Finally having his moment to think after Agatha had taken the hint to let him have some peace, Burke pulled out an old leather-backed field journal he'd brought along for extended operations. He sat down on a rock and briefly took in the surrounding area, then he began to scribble in the book with a pencil he'd pulled from a pocket on his jumpsuit.

Agatha watched him scribble wildly in the book he opened, the constant scratching noise of the pencil reminded her of some of her time spent at the university. She had to admit, it was a somewhat comforting reminder of more peaceful times to watch someone scribble away like an inventor, or in this case an artist. Her comfort faded after a moment though when the boredom set in, which prompted her to approach the scribbling soldier in order to figure out what he was sketching and alleviate her boredom. She attempted to peek over the edge of the book but Burke seemed to catch on and spun his back to her in response.

"Would you mind showing me what you're drawing?" Agatha asked Burke.

"Hmph, you should've asked before you got in my face." The pilot told her in a grumpy tone.

"Come on, do we need to get into another fight?" Agatha palced her hands on her hips.

"Nah, we don't. I'll give ya that much. Fine, but let me have a bit longer and then maybe I'll let you see it." Burke sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Seriously?" Agatha raised an eyebrow.

"That just lowered your odds." Burke deadpanned.

"Er, what?" Agatha peeked over Burke's shoulder.

"Oi, quit looking over my shoulder!" He snapped.

"Alright, fine. Sorry." Agatha huffed.

"Thank you." Burke slapped the journal shut and turned to walk back to the camp.

Agatha cocked an eye at him. "Where are you going?"

"Where does it look like? Back into camp. I guess I might as well try to learn more about this place world from the other civilians. Besides, I could be wrong but, you do owe em. Might as well try to pay em back a bit." Burke said as he strolled back into the camp.

"I- you have a point there." She said reluctantly, and followed the future soldier back into the camp.

-WITH BURKE-

Agatha and Burke temporarily parted ways, and the pilot then began looking around, sketching some of the strange new sights into his notebook. The strange attire of the troupe's members was something that intrigued him to an extent. But what also caught his interest was strange little building with legs that resembled those of a chicken. He scribbled the design into his field journal for Doctor Vahlen to look over later whenever he would return to his world. He then spotted the man known as master Payne having a private conversation with a blonde woman whom Burke deduced to be someone very close to the circus master. Keen on acquiring some new information, the pilot stealthily climbed up to the top of the wagon for a less conspicuous vantage point. But just as he reached the roof of the wagon, his boot landed on the tail of a certain annoying creature.

Krosp was about to mewl in agony but Burke was quick to clamp his hand over the cat's mouth. The self-proclaimed cat king was hopping mad from having his tail stepped on the angry facial expression was showing to Burke. The pilot put a finger over his mouth, a gesture to the angry ball of fluff to remain quiet and join him in listening to the circus master and his associate. Krosp nodded gritted his fangs at the pilot before turning his attention to the two people below their position.

"So my dear, what do you think?" Master Payne asked his wife.

"It's too soon to tell but she seems very nice, and so does that boy with the huge clank. They're brave and good-hearted, but then that's not the question is it?" She replied coolly. The blonde woman narrowed her eyes and looked her lover directly into his own. "We may have nothing to fear. It will take us a few short months to get to mechanics-burg, if both of them leave at that point, they might never notice anything. Are you worried?"

"Moxana has started a new game." Master Payne told her in a serious tone

"What? Started over? Why didn't she add them like she always does? Which pieces?" She gasped in fear, her eyes opened wide in surprise.

"I- I don't know." Payne sighed tiredly. "It's not just a new piece but a completely new game, with completely new rules. I'm still working it out, but it seems that those two are at the center of the whole thing." He explained what little he could to his fellow troupe member.

"Oh my lord! What have we done?" The woman lamented the complex situation that she and the others had stumbled into by bringing in the newcomers.

"What we had to. You said it yourself, we couldn't abandon the girl, though I believe that the boy could take care of himself but he may not go anywhere without her." Payne tried to comfort her.

"Of course we couldn't. But a whole new game? That has me very worried." She put her hands to sides of her face in worry.

"As am I." Master Payne replied.

"Well that was interesting." Krosp hummed with a furrowed, fuzzy brow.

"Once again we can agree on something, hairball." Burke lazily told his unwanted companion.

"I'm not going to forget this by the way, how you stepped on my tail!" Krosp hissed at the pilot.

"Ooh I'm so scared." Burke deadpanned, the sarcasm in his tone only served to further infuriate the feline.

"As you should be! The wrath of cats can last for generations!" Krosp glared at Burke.

"Not this isn't fun, in fact it's actually boring me out of my skull, but we have other matters to attend to. This information could be very useful." Burke deadpanned.

"True enough, we'll settle this later. You can be sure of that." The cat king crossed his arms with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Yep." Burke lazily replied. The two of them went their separate ways for the moment and Burke remained on top of the carriage. He pondered the new development and what his next move would be from this point going forward. Another question that had arisen was the identity of 'Moxana' and what sort of game she was playing. Who or rather whatever it was, Burke knew he had to find out more about it.

With his moment of thought over, the pilot took off into the trees to get some practice with his parkour skills and more peace for himself. He fired a grapple line from his wrist that latched onto a nearby pine tree. At the apex of his swing, Burke unlatched the hook and leapt towards another tree. He immediately bounced off of it to land on his next perch. The tree he happened to land on next though was not the most stable of platform as it began to tip over when he made impact upon the old wood. Burke darted up the falling tree and took to the sky with a quick burst of fire from his jump kit thruster. He made a graceful flip as he soared through the air and smirked at the freedom of being able to run wherever he saw fit. It was an enjoyable experience to go through the forest as fast as his feet could carry him, with no threat behind him, or any ambush in front of him. He felt like it was just a relaxing stroll through the park to go at that pace, with his lungs pumping and the clean air of the forest surrounding him.

The kind of freedom this world had provided him was something he'd rarely felt before in his life. Sure there had been exotic planets he'd been sent to, but he'd always had a mission or some kind of goal in front of him. But here in this dimension, his directive from command was to explore this strange open world at his leisure. Aside from the baron hunting him and the odd nature of the local technological state, it was an explorer's paradise. Burke leapt high over a pack of wolves on the hunt and grinned as he soared among the tree tops as free as a bird. After several more hops from one tree to the next, the pilot reached a tree that stood taller than the rest and decided to get some climbing practice. In a flash he had grappled over to the tree and secured the retractable line to his belt for safety. Burke then began to scale the tree up to its highest point for him to enjoy.

When Burke had reached the top of the wooden spire he took a breath at the sight of the vast expanse of wild lands that stretched to the horizon. From his point of view the entire world seemed to be in harmony with how the forest and its creatures went about with the circle of life. He looked back in the direction of the camp and frowned, whether he liked it or not, he had made a promise to Agatha to get her to his time. Burke shrugged and skydived down into the forest with a joy filled yell.

-SEVERAL MINUTES LATER-

Burke had returned to the camp and hung from a tree, he'd taken care to conceal himself in the shadows to observe the usual goings on of the troupe. So far it was a mundane group of ordinary people, doing their usual business. For him it was a boring observation but still necessary to get a feel for how these people lived their lives and he'd be traveling with them for as long as Agatha did. She was his guide to this strange world, that was a big part of his reasoning for staying with her this far, certainly not because he had any affections for her. That was what he told himself, but the more he thought about that reasoning, the less it seemed to feel right. He shook his head, he'd barely known the girl for a few days so she was maybe kind of a friend, and that was pushing it.

As if the universe had heard his thoughts, out of the corner of his visor he spotted the orange haired girl peaking out of a barrel and speaking to a member of the troupe. Burke darted over to her location through the trees and perched on top of a branch. He took a quick glance around the area to see if any one was around besides Agatha and the guy she was talking to. With no one else in sight, Burke grinned to himself and latched the grapple line to the branch. He carefully turned himself upside down and twisted his boots around the line for some control. The pilot began to slowly lower himself down to where Agatha was positioned, the girl being completely unaware of where he was.

The man she was talking with happened to take a quick glance up and spotted Burke. The pilot stuck his finger in front of where his mouth would be and pointed down at Agatha. Luckily the guy understood what Burke was up to and didn't say a word and give any indication to Agatha on what was about to happen. With his secret safe, Burke inched closer to Agatha until he was right above her. The pilot took a quick and prepared to give Agatha a good bit of pranking.

"BOO!" Burke shouted at his friend.

"WAAGH!" Agatha bolted out from the barrel in a burst of speed.

"Hahaha!" The person with whom Agatha had been talking was holding his gut in laughter as Agatha huffed and puffed from being given a good scare.

"NOT FUNNY LARS!" Agatha stood up and snapped at him.

"Are you kidding ?! It's hilarious!" Burke said as he hung from the grapple wire.

"Burke you jerk! THAT IS NOT FUNNY!" Agatha's face was a fiery red while she shouted at her traveling companion.

"It is to me!" Burke guffawed.

"Your reaction makes it even funnier!" Lars said in between laughs.

"SHUTUP!" Agatha hissed, she practically had steam plumes erupting from her ears in anger.

"Ok, ok. I'm done." Lars grinned regained his composure.

"And you, Thomas?" Agatha glared at the pilot.

"Alright, I had my fun." Burke said he tried to lower himself to the ground. Just as he was about to touch down, Agatha slugged him in the gut.

"OOF!" Burke grunted as the wind was knocked out of him. "Okay…. Maybe I deserved that." He rasped.

"Don't do that again." Agatha growled to Burke.

'Those two are like an old married couple.' Lars thought as he observed the two companions. He shook his head and took a deep breath to relax. "Okay, so where was I before Burke scared you?"

"Your life making cheese."

"Ah yes, Indeed you see before you a former cheesemaker's apprentice who stopped to see a traveling heterodyne show one day."

"That's what led you to join the troupe then isn't it?"

"You hit the nail on the head Tom."

"Like I told everybody before, call me Burke."

"Got it."

"My favorite show was the race to the west pole!"

"Oh yeah, we haven't done that one in a while."

Burke tuned out as the two of them began to reenact a scene from the show they had been discussing. A few minutes passed as Agatha and Lars went over the lines of the scene with animated expressions to suit the roles. Just when they had concluded their minor performance, the group came to a stop just out of the path of two giant white spiders that were being rode by two strange women. Burke froze at the sight of the immense creatures, his blood ran cold at the very sight of the massive, eight legged beasts. He was rooted to the spot out of fear, every instinct he had made him want to either run or pull his gun, but at this moment all he could do was stand completely still.

"Geisterdamen…" Lars whispered.

The two tribal women spoke in their native language as they eyed the small group of people in front of them. After a short conversation that ended in a dismissive expression that involved the word actors, the two tribals went on their way again. After a minute or two of silence, both of the spider riders had disappeared into the distance. Burke jittered and shook for a brief moment, which caused Agatha and Lars to give him confused looks.

"Err, Thomas? Are you o-?" Agatha reached for the pilot but just when she put her hand on his shoulder, the most unexpected thing happened.

"SPIDERS!" Burke screeched as he scrambled into the nearest tree. "I hate spiders! HATE THEM! Oh I hate spiders! H-A-T-E! Regular spiders are bad enough, but giant spiders?! Why in the good lord's name does there have to be giant spiders on this planet?!"

"That's something I'd expect from Balthazar when it comes to regular size spiders." Lars said as he stared at the quivering Burke.

Agatha couldn't help but giggle at the display of childish fear from the normally cool and sarcastic pilot. "You're scared of spiders?! Ha now that's funny! How do you like it?!" She pointed a finger at Burke in a teasing manner.

"Not the same!" He spat while he sat on his perch.

"Alright that's enough." Lars said to the both of them.

"Oh fine. Anyway, who were those people?" Agatha asked Lars

"They call em Geisterdamen, spiders riders, webdamen. All kinds of things. People say they cause revenants, blight crops, steal children, the usual burr. Truth is though that nobody knows much about them, but they've been around for years." He replied.

"I've never heard of them." Agatha said in wonder.

"Lots of things you never hear bout in the wastelands. Want to get dropped off at the nearest town?" Lars said with a smirk.

"No thanks." Agatha snorted.

"Is everybody alright?!" One of the other troupe members shouted as a group of them ran over to see what was wrong.

"Yeah!" Agatha said loudly.

"NO!" Burke shouted.

-SEVERAL HOURS LATER-

Agatha and Burke had returned to camp and were briefed on the proposed living arrangements, to which Burke objected and opted to sleep either in his Titan or under the stars. Agatha shook her head at that and watched as the pilot left to rejoin his machine. Day turned to night and the moon hanged in the night sky over the peaceful forest. Wolves howled off in the distance and smoke billowed from a campfire among the troupe's wagons. Burke and his Titan had moved somewhat closer to the group but otherwise stayed out of sight. Burke looked out at the stars and watched as one trailed across the night sky in silence. It was a beautiful night and beside him was his trusty machine.

"What more could a guy ask for?" Burke thought aloud.

"There are several answers to that query, pilot." Vex replied.

"I know Vex, but I was just enjoying the moment. Right now I've got no war to worry about, you sitting with me, and the open road ahead." Burke chuckled languidly.

"An expression as you call it?" Vex asked his operator.

"Exactly buddy, and right now things seem perfect." Burke sighed.

But suddenly the pilot's relaxing moment of peace was pierced by a loud noise from the campsite near the fire. "SKREEONK!"

"Or not…." Burke groaned.

-END CHAPTER-


End file.
